We arrived in Waterton Lakes National Park at the beginning of October to do a little fall hiking. Waterton Lakes is located in the mountainous tri-border area between BC, Alberta and the United States. South of the border, the park joins with Glacier National Park to create a pretty amazing and expansive opportunity for outdoor adventure! Last year at this time, the park was already under several feet of snow….this year it was beautiful and sunny with daytime highs of 20 degrees! Park services were starting to shut down for the winter and with school back in session, we didn’t think we would have any issue finding a spot to camp. We were sadly mistaken! Apparently many folks were out to enjoy the last bit of summer-like weather in Southern Alberta. Our first night in the park was actually spent in a parking lot with a dozen or so other campers as the campsites were all full! Fortunately we got up early and beat the crowd to snag a proper campsite for the next couple of nights. Didn’t really matter though – seeing the lakeshore from our back window was cool wherever we parked!

We had never visited Waterton Lakes National Park before and were excited to start exploring. Three years ago, the park made headlines for the worst of reasons…an uncontrolled wildfire was destroying much of the park. Valiant (and fortunately successful) efforts were made to save the iconic Prince of Wales Hotel but much of the surrounding forests and park infrastructure were burned. From that time, large areas of the park remained closed while clean-up and rebuilding were undertaken. On our first hike to Bertha Lake, the damage was obvious – most of the surrounding forest along the trail had been destroyed – but it did retain a rather eery beauty.

Our first hike in Waterton passed along Lower Bertha Falls then up to Bertha Lake, where this spectacular lake awaited us…

Our next day of hiking was on the Carthew-Alderson Trail. We were joined by our friend Tracy from Lethbridge – a fellow Canadian who we met in Patagonia earlier this year. It was lovely to catch up and have a local perspective on the trail. Our hike started at Cameron Lake and finished near the Waterton townsite. The Akamina Parkway is used to access the start of the trail but has been closed for the past three years as reconstruction from the wildfire in 2017 was undertaken. Turns out our timing was good on this one – the Parkway reopened the day we arrived in Waterton so we were among the first to drive the new road and hike the trail from Cameron Lake. The trail was uncrowded and the weather was spectacular….and we got a few curious looks from some of the wildlife!

After leaving Waterton, we wanted to take advantage of the continued good weather so made a break for Lake Louise in Banff National Park to re-do one of our favourite hikes to the tea houses. There are two tea houses that are accessed from a trail that starts at Lake Louise. The Agnes Lake Teahouse was built in 1901 and the Plain of Six Glaciers Teahouse was built in 1924 by CPR employees as refuges for hikers. These teahouses remain true to their original roots and are off-grid and charmingly rustic. All supplies have to be hiked in so it is pretty special when you can sit down to a nice cup of hot tea and fresh biscuits when you are several hours into the wilderness. And the surrounding scenery isn’t too bad either! Fortunately with the good weather, the tea houses were still open for the season so we were able to enjoy tea and biscuits at both locations.

After Lake Louise, we took a break from hiking and opted for the chairlift up Mount Norquay, across the highway from the townsite of Banff. In the winter, it is a busy ski hill but in the summer, you can ride the chairlift to the historic Cliffhouse Restaurant, located at 6900 feet above sea level. It is a really cool renovated mid-century building that was famously visited by Marilyn Monroe in 1953 – they have the photos of her on the chairlift to prove it! We chowed down on a very tasty lunch (and a local craft beer or two for Warren) but the surrounding views were the star of the show here. The mountains are spectacular and we even had a rainbow appear on our way down the mountain.

Interestingly, a couple of weeks after our visit, Mount Norquay would open for ski season – its earliest opening in its 95 year history! Winter can come fast and furious in the mountains.