July 7, 2008 – Canada, Flora, and Fauna

Ehh? Today we went to Canada to see the Waterton side of the park. The two parks together are known as the Waterton – Glacier International Peace Park. I (Hubby) was please to learn of the key involvement of Rotary clubs on both side of the border in getting the governments of the two countries to create the joint park designation and then get recognition from the United Nations for the arrangement.

We set the alarm for a change so that we could get going, knowing that it was going to be a long day. We needed to get to the east side of the Park so we chose to take Going to the Sun Road through the Park rather than taking the highway around the south side. GSR is much shorter, but slower driving speeds. I think the drive time probably works out to be about the same, but GSR is a much more scenic drive. Anyway the four of us (Wife, Hubby, Wonder Dog, and our GPS, BB) got an early start for Canada.

BB really had a lot of trouble with the route from the east side of Glacier up to the Waterton entrance. She was obviously confused but refused to admit it. She mapped out a truly bizarre route which we chose not to follow. This of course really annoyed her.

I was surprised at how much Canadian culture we encountered right away. People really say “ehh” – some of them use it in every sentence. Of course there were plenty of visitors from the USA, but most of the license plates we saw were Canadian.

The Waterton Park environment is similar to Glacier, with notable differences. The glacial moraine (left behind with the retreat of ancient glaciers) is very pronounced in the eastern area. The park isn’t as lush as the western part of Glacier, but seems to have more precipitation then the eastern side of Glacier. Wildflowers were everywhere. In general they have really started to bloom since we got here, and the open areas in the Waterton park were really in bloom.

Waterton would be a terrific place to have a base camp/cabin and make a lot of day hikes. We drove the two main roads and walked a little, but since this was just a day trip didn’t have time to do a lot of hiking, but we saw a lot of trail heads. There is at least one trail that you can take between the two parks.

We encountered a lot of critters, both domestic and wild. The highway that we took from the USA north went through an open range area, so we had to slow down occasionally for cattle. In the Waterton Park we got up close and personal with a gang of hoofed creatures. I am still not sure whether they were mountain goats or big horned sheep. They don’t really look like the mountain goats at Logan Pass, and their horns are similar to the photos I’ve seen of big horn sheep. But their horns are not all that – big. Until notified otherwise I’m going to assume that they are just young big horn sheep.

Then there was the bear. Wife was really hoping to see a bear on this trip and she got her wish. Fortunately we were not so up close and personal with the bear. He/she was along the roadside and we stayed in the car. Wife’s camera was available and the bear was on my side so I grabbed it and shot away. Fun stuff.

On the way home we went back over GSR. I highly recommend driving this road as the sun is setting. There was practically no traffic and the last light of the day was really beautiful as we drove toward the setting sun.