Waterton Lakes

Monday morning I ran along the campground path to the Waterton Lakes waterfall and couldn’t figure out why I was so breathless until I remembered the elevation.  Thinking about being a mile above sea level gives me vertigo and an urge to lie down so as not to fall into the ocean.  At least that was my excuse for making it an easy run.

Canada is at the forefront of the local and sustainable movement.  It seems Waterton Lakes has taken this to heart through local and sustainable campground security.  Liam snapped this photo in Pearl’s Café of an ad for the local attack deer that guard the campground.  

Notice the steely set of the mouth, the muscular ears, the bulbous nose, the glint in the eyes, the razor-sharp teeth crushing the life out of the flower.  The triangular graphic in the lower left illustrates these creatures' technique for handling intruders.  Three of them patrolled past our tent this morning – a big one and two smaller ones in training.  

Here’s the actual sign in its position next to the river that runs through the camp.  

Look closely at the area surrounding the sign -- notice the absence of intruders?   

Actually, one of the rangers told us that last year she was attacked by a deer she surprised bedded down in the middle of town.  As the deer was rearing and stomping at her, the ranger kicked her in the chest to get away.  The deer in Waterton have been known to attack unleashed dogs, tourists they think are threatening the fawns, and campers who go too long without washing their socks.  Camping has been a great incentive for me to keep up with my running - now I think of it as practice.

Monday afternoon we hiked up to Bear’s Hump, which is sort of a lower lookout point before the much higher peaks.  The woman at the Visitor Centre told us it was a lovely but steep hike that would take us a half hour.  I don’t know what happy time zone she lives in, but it took us about 3 hours.  It also took five years off my knees and nearly killed the dog.  Nice view.       

After that we visited Red Rock Canyon (so named because of the red color of the rocks and the canyon-like nature of the canyon).  

The creek that runs through it is icy cold, so on a hot sunny day like the day we were there, everyone takes their shoes off and wades in it.   

 I jumped into the freezing water of Waterton Lakes (voluntarily, without being pushed or bribed) for a swim before dinner.  Liam and Kai have been amusing themselves by learning how to skip rocks in the lake and poking sticks down the entrance to the ground squirrel burrows. 

Another beautiful night under the Canadian stars, much of which I spent in the car writing my book-chapter-from-hell.  

-Juliet