After fun with our wolf friend, we cruised through Kootenay and Banff National Parks.
We walked through Radium Hot Springs
stopped at nearly every pull out for a view and picture
checked out the Paint Pots
dropped our feet into the Vermillion River for a quick cleaning
and made our way to Stanley Glacier for a hike.
We had entered some of the most picturesque territory we have seen thus far. Don’t get me wrong, every place we have been to holds its own beauty and unique vibe, but Tony and I are suckers for mountains. We just adored western Canada.
The Stanley Glacier hike was fun, quick, and stunning. If you are a more serious mountaineer, or have the time, you can go beyond the maintained trails and do a few days backpacking. We are not really set up for that, so we stuck with the quick in-and-out. The hike is slightly over 5 miles round trip and about 1,200 vertical feet. There are simply gorgeous views of the surrounding mountains.
Here is the classic example of the serendipitous tendencies of our adventure: We were lucky enough to run into some folks from Calgary at the top who recommended Waterton National Park. From our hike we headed to our favorite bar/restaurant/distillery in downtown Banff, “Park”. We had been in Banff previously for a friend’s wedding, and we were excited to head back to the distillery. As we settled in for a couple drinks and snacks, our waiter struck up a conversation, and when we told him we were told to go to Waterton, he insisted we do the Crypt Lake Hike, which turned out to be one of the best hikes of our lives. It sure is crazy to think that we would have missed out on that if we hadn’t talked to those people!
With notes taken, drinks drunken, and gin boughten we were on our way to Canmore. One of Tony’s friends and colleagues had just moved there from Colorado (nuts huh?). We got some quality time with her and her partner, got to know their sweet pups, grabbed some delicious dinner, and got a revitalizing and much needed shower.
After a relaxing overnight, we did some organizing and purging, and drove from Canmore to Calgary to catch up with another friend for lunch (who previously lived in Colorado as well). I can’t say it enough, having so many friends and family along this journey has made it for us. We are so lucky and privileged to have such generous people in our life. We took a self-guided geologic tour, thanks to a borrowed roadside geology book (thanks Casey!), and made our way down to Waterton National Park.
Waterton is the Canadian portion of Glacier National Park in Montana. We were first greeted by the Prince of Wales Hotel. Click the link, because it’s a really cool building, but I’m hopeful that I can convince everyone that Waterton is worthy of a visit.
Fun fact: the Prince of Wales Hotel was named for the Queen Elizabeth II’s husband while he was doing a tour of Canada, with the hopes that he would come to visit. He did, but instead opted to stay at a friend’s ranch miles away, not cool Robert Frost! We then meandered into downtown Waterton, which is a quaint village adjacent to the lake. We entered our campground and our hearts sank a little. The place was packed full of folks, mostly RV’s and trailers, kids running everywhere. While there’s nothing wrong with this, we prefer to rough it, you know? This was not ‘off the grid’, but as we found our way to our reserved spot we found a few empty campsites surrounding us, and perfect views of the lake. Crisis averted! We popped the tent, made some dinner, and planned our hike to Crypt Lake the next day.
Words cannot convey how amazing this hike was. It is worth it’s own post, that’s how awesome it was. But since we’re already talking about it…
It was ranked “black” for experts, similar to “black diamonds” for skiing. If you are in good shape and have done other hikes, I would tell you to go for it. It is not as hard as the 14ers in Colorado, and it is simply gorgeous and unique. It was ranked in the top 20 hikes by National Geographic. The hike is AWESOME. You start with a ferry ride from downtown Waterton to the trailhead.
Tony and I were scoping out the competition on the boat. Everyone looked to be in amazing shape, so we decided we would wait for folks to head up and then follow so we’d have some room and not feel like we were in the way of others. However, once we got there, everyone was lollygagging after unloading from the ferry… so we just started heading up, and we never got passed on the race to the top. Win.
We made our way through gorgeous rain forest with waterfalls,
emerging from the trees onto rock outcrops,
up an iron ladder,
through a tiny tunnel,
out onto a narrow, very steep cliff face,
and ended at a stunning glacial lake.
If you walk to the other side of the lake, you can walk into the US without a passport (Shhhhh! We don’t want anyone to build a wall). The lake is called “Crypt Lake” because there isn’t a surface outflow; the water flows through the limestone bedrock and emerges about 20 feet from the cliff in spring out of a short tunnel, the ‘crypt’.
Just in case that wasn’t enough majestic beauty for you, there is a small lower loop you can take on the way down that takes you past tiers of multiple waterfalls.
I just can’t say enough great things about this place. Tony proceeded to make me nervous eating all sorts of berries along the trail, we came across some fresh bear scat, and continued to sing or chat the entire way to keep the bears away.
Another fun fact: bear bells, according to the folks in Kootenay, do not work. The bears don’t understand what they are and become curious. They do understand what a human voice is and generally stay way. So needless to say, our conversation consisted generally of random stream of consciousness.
We took the ferry home, showered, dropped an exhausted Bee off at the truck, and biked back to downtown for dinner and drinks, promptly followed by a solid sleep. The hike is just under 11 miles, 2,200 vertical feet, and worth every step.
The next morning we headed to the local “pie and coffee” place. Also known as heaven! We got 3 different pies to taste and downed plenty of coffee. We were told we must come back when were married for 20 years and that we would be held to it. Fair enough. I’ll be back. Maybe before then.
From Waterton we headed back to the great US of A. We drove through Glacier National Park. We would have loved to stop there to camp and hike, but there are few national parks in the states that are accepting of dogs besides parking lots and some campgrounds.
The drive was stunning, we ran into a whole parade of land cruisers with rooftop tents, and made our way to Lindbergh Lake in Montana. We found a sparse, tiny campground (perfect for us). We set up next to this cute van, where we met our first formal on-the-road buddies, Liz, Michael, and their pup, Piper. Yes, we still stay in touch – small world, they have ties to Colorado and Idaho. We got to romp in the lake, hang out, trade travel tips, play games, and just hang with some like-minded folks. We both spent an extra day at camp to continue the love fest.
A little sad, the six of us split up, and we headed for Butte, MT to do laundry, restock on food, and catch up on the blog. Coolest laundromat in Butte? Suds McClean Laundry, Tanning and Coffee of course!
Then we made our way to Ringing Rocks. Yes, they are a pile of rocks so hard that they ring like a bell when you smack them with a hammer. Check it out. For you geology nerds out there, they are the weathered remains of an intrusive igneous pluton. Fun, right?
This part of Montana felt a lot like home: sage brush, desert, and sunny. We got to dry out from the rainy days in Canada and Lindbergh Lake.
After a recommendation from a cross-country motorcyclist we met in Revelstoke, we headed to Pony, MT (Potosi Campground). We were entering on a Sunday as everyone was leaving.
We got a stunning camp spot by a river, dropped our bikes off, and proceeded to off-road in the nearby mountains for about 3 or 4 hours while binging Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast. We came home, made some delicious stir fry and settled in for the evening while listening to the river.
We were bound for a state I had never been to… North Dakota.
"Purposefully Unrushed" 
The part about the bears on your hike was all too real for me. LOL
Glad you guys made friends on the road! Love you and miss you!
LikeLike