Heading down South....

The Wind Turbine Plant
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So this time, Jimmy and I packed a change of clothes along with a few other things and headed south to a national park that unfortunately has been much less regarded and visited than Banff or Lake Louise; this place is Waterton Lake National Park. It is known to be the last bit of the Canadian Rockies which crosses into the border of the United States, in the province of Montana.

We headed out as the sun was setting and on the way we pass through many inactive towns where shops had already closed. We drove for 2 hours and finally made it safely to Tyler and Alene’s house(a married couple and Jimmy’s friends) in Lethbridge. We arrived at 10.30pm arranging to sleep over so we could have a full day ahead to check out Waterton. Planning for an early night didn’t quite happen as we stayed up into the wee hours of the morning watching Nacho Libre before calling it a night.

quick pose and click
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In the morning, Tyler woke Jimmy and me up at 7am, we went off to grab breakfast together before dropping Tyler off at work. From there we drove south. The drive was flat, scanning into the distance there was nothing but paddocks of roaming cattle and continuous dandelions crawling up to the edge of the road. Then I spotted something in a distance, protruding from the ground lined a row of giant wind turbines. They were inactive but they were massive in size. After a quick pose and click of the camera we were back on the road and we finally arrived at the village of Waterton.

along the way to Waterton
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We went pass a lake and decided to check it out, it was quiet and peaceful but nobody seemed to be around to enjoy it. The shore line filled with countless number of rocks, all perfectly oval and flat shaped, it was perfect for rock skipping and so we just had to have a competition. After the short detour, we went back to the village and into the visitor centre to enquire what there was to see, hike or do around here. I looked around the centre and immediately noticed a lot of bear articles, tips when encountering a bear and even hiking trails named after bears. So I had to ask the question “What’s with all the bears?” I soon found out that we were in Bear Country, and if I had any chance of seeing a bear on this trip; this was the place to be.

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We left the visitor centre and drove 20kms west of the village to get to our first scenic site, Cameron Falls. We sat on a bench looking at the waterfall from a distance behind a man made wooden enclosure eating our lunch. Our next stop was Cameron Lake, as we got there we saw canoes being rented out and so we enquired. After being told that Montana was over at the other end of the Lake, we were sold; deciding to paddle all the way across and step foot into Montana. We stepped into a canoe, got a starting push and we paddled hard and fast until my arms tired and broke the momentum. Then we let the canoe drift itself as we relaxed, it was so tranquil sitting out on the middle of the lake with no one else around but trees and mountain peaks surrounding the lake. I closed my eyes and all I could hear was the light winds blowing softly pass my ear and the sound of water parting as the Canoe drifted ahead.

A random log house we visited along the way
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We continued paddling ahead getting closer to Montana, steering the Canoe towards the shore that was covered with rocks and we crashed the canoe up onto the shore and eventually came to a stop. We got out and celebrated by stomping our feet on American soil while giving each other high fives. I looked around and there was really no place to go, the mountains were on an incline of at least 70 degrees and there was no trail to walk up either. I wondered for a second how someone could make it safely into the States without a passport and the only conclusion I came up with was to climb the mountains all the way to the summit then you have to fight off any bears you may encounter since we’re in bear country and even then you have to make it pass the border patrol officers on the other side of the mountains before you are safe. It is possible but not very viable.

The Lake by the village - where we played rock skipping
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We sat down on a huge rock, resting and taking more photos before canoeing back across the lake. Once we got back we hopped into the car and drove to our next destination, another 17kms east of the village to Red Rock Canyon. The name says it all, the Canyon is bright red caused by oxidization over time, we walked along the canyon and found a short path to hike to Blakiston Falls. It was only a short 2km hike to the falls, a short walk more like it but we managed some more pictures before heading back to Lethbridge.

Jimmy and I doing something
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On the drive back down from Red Rock Canyon, we see 5 cars all pulled over to the side of the road and noticed one of them to be a park rangers car. So we joined in to see what the fuss was about and to my luck, there in a distance about 300 metres away, I saw 2 huge brown bears and a cub innocently picking off berries from the berry trees with their mouths and feasting away. They seem like such ponderous animals strolling around leisurely ignoring the large crowd as we gathered around watching and taking pictures. After many clicks of the camera I finally got a shot that I was content with and so we left on our way back to Lethbridge. At Tyler and Aylene’s house, they had dinner prepared and we ate with them and spent some more time chatting before Jimmy and I drove back to Calgary. All the way home I was knocked out cold asleep but every now and then I would half open my eyes and mutter to Jimmy “are you alright, do you want me to drive?” then fall back asleep before he could even answer. By the end of the 2 hour drive I could see Jimmy’s eyes light up with fire, with an upside down smile on his face like he wanted to choke me and I knew it was simply because I failed to keep him company on the drive home. But he was happy to be home, so sorry Jimmy my bad.