Score 5 – 0 On The Bear Count

Wed. 9^th September ’26

Today we have a full day to explore Waterton Lakes, a place I had never heard of before we started planning this trip. It is a small National Park bordering Montana facing Mount Custer (probably named after George Custer of Custer’s Last Stand fame as the Battle of the Little Bighorn was in Southeastern Montana). It is also supposedly the windiest place in Canada and it has been blowing today. Claude has three sections for today on different routes out of town. Rather than choose, we decide to have a go at all three – a typical cop-out!

The first section is to head to Cameron Lake, where we could hire a kayak and pootle around the lake. Given the wind and boring shape of the lake we decide against it. We even forgo a walk around the lake as it does not appear to be one of the better walks on the itinerary. A quick few snaps and we return along the road to Akamina Lake. This is a short walk and is pretty enough but did not hold our attention for long so we were soon back down the road to town, ready for part two.

The next road is to Red Rock Canyon and as we are fans of weird geological formations we are quite excited. However on the road up to the canyon, we see cars parked haphazardly along the sides and part of the roads with their owners pointing phones and cameras to the left over the road barrier. It was bear spotting time. Once we had safely parked, I leapt out with my camera to join the throng. Dave took longer as he changed to his telephoto lens. However, the Park Wardens were soon on the case and shouted at everyone to return to their vehicles. I snapped a few shots but Dave didn’t get a chance to see the mummy bear with two cubs.

Red Rock Canyon is formed from compacted sedimentary rock called Argillite and is unsurprisingly a red colour. It is striking against the normal grey landscape. Many places are getting health and safety conscious so we were surprised to see that visitors are allowed to scramble down onto the banks on their endless quest for selfies. After a few (non-selfie) pictures, we walked around to the Blakiston Falls. Barriers and stairways were in abundance hopefully avoiding some Darwinian stupidity on the rocks. As waterfalls go these are mid table obscurity in the Hornsey league of waterfalls.

On the way back to town, we saw more stupid stopping in the middle of the road, as people pointed their cameras to the left. As Dave drove by I saw the subject of their photo, a bear ambling across a field but nowhere nearby to safely stop. Still, that makes the score five bear sightings to me and none to Dave, early days into our trip and who says I’m not competitive!! [Ed. – Only people who don’t know you!]

Definitely tea time. We have our own teabags and borrowed a kettle from reception as decent tea is hard to find this side of the pond. Refreshed, we had saved the best, and hardest until last, the Bears Hump walk to the viewpoint over Waterton Lake and town. It was a tough rough steep walk to the top, a climb of 265m with a total distance of 2.64km walked. One lad half our age flaked out on a bench half way up saying he had misjudged it. Yep, he learned the hard way that is it best to take it slow and steady.

If it was windy down at lake level, it was positively blowing at the top of Bear’s Hump. So much so, that we had to be careful with our footing, particularly when near the cliff edge trying to take photos. There were certainly spectacular views to be had and a few more photos to take looking down the lake and of The Prince of Wales hotel. The Prince of Wales pub on the promontory is definitely striking to look at and according to guide books, the place to stay and have proper afternoon tea with amazing views over the lake.

We are regretting our choice to stay at the Kilmorey Lodge as it was expensive hotel and the reality did not live up to the hopes. But this is not the place to moan. It wasn’t our best decision but you can’t win them all. If there is a next time we would stay in town closer to the Lakeside Chophouse restaurant which was a much better experience. Just time to take a stroll past the marina and question why so many places have red chairs placed ready for taking photos, in this case facing towards the water. The lakeside provided us with some final night time lakeside photos before we turn in as we have a long drive tomorrow to Lake Louise.