Waterton Lakes National Park

Waterton Lakes National Park is about an hour and a half hours drive South of Lethbridge. It is a sister park to Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana.

When we arrived in Canada we booked in to stay at the Prince of Wales Hotel, there are only 10 days of off season rates available.

Constructed in 1927 by the Great Northern Railway The Prince of Wales Hotel has striking architectural designs. The design includes soaring roofs, gables and balconies that set this hotel apart from the typical hotel lodging and give the Prince of Wales Hotel a romantic alpine chalet feel. Named after Prince Edward, the hotel offers a traditional British atmosphere complete with afternoon tea.

From our floor looking down to the foyer. All male staff here including the bell boys wear kilts. The girls wear tartan sashes with black skirts or pants, and kilts in the dinning room at night.

Craig was intrigued with the typical railway bridge type construction.

Picture windows in the foyer. High tea is served here every afternoon.

All rooms are in keeping with the era in which the hotel was built. No TV or Internet here, but look at the view from our window.

The Royal Stewart Dining Room offers fine English and Continental Canadian dining. We had breakfast here each morning and dinner Friday night. Craig decided to sample the most expensive dish on the menu - lamb!

Below -view from the dinning room in the evening. That's Waterton township and the marina to the right.

Great Falls - Ducks, Geese and Squirrels

Great Falls - Montana, USA

As we hadn't been across the border we thought we would drive down to Great Falls, Montana. As you can see the roads are pretty similar. I liked the mile markers on the side telling you how far you had come (from where we weren't sure).

We stopped in town for lunch and some shopping, there is an excellent toy shop called Amazing Toys - Where Sophisticates Shop for Fun! and a shop for tea lovers, there were tea pots, tea sets, fine china and every type of tea you could imagine.

Below are photos of the Museum of Art and some of the sculptures outside .

In the afternoon we checked out the local areas of interest. Rainbow Falls, the Missouri River, Giant Springs and Fish Hatchery.

Herbert Lake

We passed this lake on the way in to Lake Louise village. I had taken a photo of it above, but it was through the windscreen so we went back to hike part way around it and take a few more photos before driving back to Lethbridge. It was a very nice spot with picnic tables and areas to launch small boats and canoes.

Moraine Lake

Moraine Lake is 14kms from the Lake Louise village. It is situated in the valley of the ten peaks (the series of ten mountain peaks that runs from the edge of the lake along the left side of the entire valley) The lake, being glacially fed, does not reach its full height until mid to late June. When we visited the water wasn't even up to the canoe pontoon. This lake was featured twice on the Canadian $20 bill. We hiked the trail that goes half way around the lake.

The large rock pile (originally thought to be a moraine) that blocks the waters was deposited by major rockfalls from the Tower of Babel '(smaller mountain) to the south. There are trees growing on the older landslide where the rocks are covered with lichens.
The lake often remains frozen until June, and the access road is closed all winter.

It was 25 degrees and yet there was still snow on parts of the trail.

Bow Lake and Black Bears

The next morning we left Num-Ti-Jah and Bow Lake (you can just make out Num-Ti-Jah to the right of the photo below). We made our way back to Lake Louise and then on to Lake Moraine.

On the way we spotted these black bears. There were three cubs, they were so busy it was hard to get a photo of them. Their Mum was keeping a watchful eye as you can see.

Driving to Lake Louise village.