Waterton Lakes National Park, in the far south-west corner of Alberta, is where the Canadian prairie runs straight into the Rocky Mountains. There are almost no foothills to soften the change: grassland ends and peaks rise, with a chain of deep glacial lakes in between. Upper Waterton Lake, the largest of them, is 148 metres deep, the deepest lake in the Canadian Rockies, and it runs south across the border into Glacier National Park in Montana.
Waterton Lakes National Park: a short history
The lakes were named by Lieutenant Thomas Blakiston of the Palliser Expedition after the British naturalist Charles Waterton (1782–1865). The area was protected in 1895 as the Kootenay Lakes Forest Reserve, making it Canada’s fourth national park. Its first settler, John George “Kootenai” Brown, became the first park official in 1911.
In 1932 Waterton and Glacier were joined as the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, the first of its kind in the world. UNESCO added the peace park to the World Heritage List in 1995, and in 2017 it became an International Dark Sky Park, the first such designation to cross a national border. The park covers 505 km², and its highest summit is Mount Blakiston at 2,910 m.
Where prairie meets mountain: landscape and wildlife
That abrupt meeting of two landscapes packs prairie grassland, aspen parkland, subalpine forest, alpine tundra and wetland into a small area. Parks Canada counts more than half of Alberta’s plant species in Waterton, along with over 60 mammal species, about 250 bird species and 24 kinds of fish. Bighorn sheep, mountain goats, black and grizzly bears, wolverines, bald eagles and a herd of plains bison all live here.
The weather comes off the mountains hard. The park’s strongest recorded wind reached 161 km/h, and Cameron Lake, high in the west of the park, is the wettest spot in the province with about 152 cm of precipitation a year.
The Prince of Wales Hotel and the MV International
The Prince of Wales Hotel stands alone on a bluff above the townsite. The Great Northern Railway built it in 1926–27 to draw American tourists north from Glacier, and it opened on 25 July 1927. The wind was so strong during construction that it pushed the half-built wings about 7.5 cm out of square. It is a National Historic Site of Canada, and no Prince of Wales has ever stayed there.
Down at the marina, the MV International has carried visitors along Upper Waterton Lake since 1927. The 250-passenger boat cruises down the lake towards Goat Haunt at its Montana end, crossing the international boundary on the water.
Best things to do in Waterton
- Bear’s Hump: climbs 225 m in 1.4 km from the visitor centre area, one of the steepest short hikes in the Canadian Rockies, with the classic view over the townsite and lake.
- Crypt Lake: reached by boat across the lake and then a demanding trail through a short tunnel. The lake has no surface outlet and drains underground through karst.
- Red Rock Canyon: a short gorge of red argillite at the end of the Red Rock Parkway, where fossil stromatolites are visible in the rock.
- Cameron Lake: at the end of the Akamina Parkway, close to the Continental Divide.
- Cameron Falls: right in the townsite.
The park is open all year, but the main season is July and August, when the boats and most services run. Waterton Park townsite, at about 1,290 m, is the only place in the park with shops and lodging. Recreational drones are prohibited. Check Parks Canada bulletins before you go: the 2017 Kenow Wildfire burned about 200 km² of the park, and some trails and roads have had long closures since. The townsite and the Prince of Wales Hotel were saved.
Plan more Canadian lakes with Moraine Lake in Banff, or travel further afield with Antony Harrison’s South Island collection.
Related reading
- Azure Lake in Wells Gray Park, British Columbia
- Abraham Lake’s Ice Bubbles: Layers beneath the Surface
- Frozen Hairstyles at Takhini Hot Springs in Canada
- Canadian Winter Humour: Snowbanks, Cold-Weather Scenes and Everyday Life
- Soap Bubbles in a Thompson, Manitoba Winter
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