Waterton National Park

The first thing anyone in Alberta tells you about Waterton is the wildlife spotting. So when Mujir and Avanti suggested we accompany them and Avanti’s mom, we happily agreed. Moreover Sharan colleagues let out the secret – it’s the pre-hibernation time for the bears so they’ll be out there gorging on berries before they disappear for winter. That nailed it for us. We have been fairly luckily in Bandipur and Panna in India. So definitely wanted to check what it was here.

As always we decided to leave early. Waterton is a minimum 3 hr drive (borders USA) and if wanted to make the most of the day in the place, we had to be there early. We got up late making others wait, so we were running around scampering for things. In all the early morning commotion, both Sharan and I forgot our camera – A blunder and not just a mistake we found out later.

We reached our 1st destination – a hiking trail just before Waterton Village called Bear’s Hump around 9:30. As we got off the car, we heard girls screeching and screaming. When I turned around to check what the hullabaloo was all about, it was our first bear sighting for the day. It was a fully grown black cinnamon bear 12 feet away, looking straight at us. Thanks to all the noise it scuttled away before Avanti or her mom could get the camera. That pretty much defined the rest of the day for us.

We happily started the ascent to the Bear’s hump. The board read that it was short but steep. Knowing our fitness level both Sharan and I got instantly cautious. The climb was quite sharp but we trudged along slowly. We reached the hilltop within an hour. And it was the windiest I’ve ever seen – Sharan was almost knocked off his feet, so one can imagine the plight of the rest J But it was all well worth it as the view of Waterton lakes (upper and lower) and the village was stunning. We missed our camera but 2 other point n shoots were available atleast for witness. The downhill hike was much faster as always but not as fast as it would be for the Canadians. We met several hikers who were on the way up when we were going downhill. The entire lot crossed us again and we hadn’t reached the base yet. Speaks a lot about our and their fitness and speed, huh?

We decided to have packed brunch on the banks of the river nearby. Though there weren’t appropriate seating available, we hungrily devoured the sandwiches. The mood got even better after a stomach fill. We decided to head to the village and see if we could get onto the cruise around the lake. On the way back from the river to the village, we saw that the car in front of us had stopped. We weren’t sure if it had broken down or they were lost, looking at maps. We were in the middle of nowhere – with the valley on 1 side and forrest on the other. The driver then pointed out to a nearby hillock. It was our second bear sighting for the day. It was another fully grown black cinnamon bear looking at down at the car in front of us – just 20 ft away. This time we were able to capture it on camera. Oh but there is a difference - it wasn’t our camera. Anyways, guess there was another bear nearby (we couldn’t see), so this one ran back into the jungle.

By now everyone agreed that luck WAS on our side - we reached Waterton village in time for the cruise. The cruise was quite good – the commentator was even better. But I’d not recommend it for the 2nd time. The 2 highlights of the cruise were –
A. Part of Upper Waterton Lake is in the US, so we crossed borders with NO FUSS.
B. Spotted bald eagles nesting.
The other interesting point we noted was that the 7 hour difficult hike up to Crypt Lake, the most popular hike of Waterton, started in the middle of nowhere and the only way to get to the starting point was this cruise.

Once we were off the cruise, we roamed around the main streets of the village. We spotted some wild deer roaming around just like us – that definitely was an unusual sight. It was almost 6pm and we hurriedly got to our next destination – red canyon. The drive up to the place was very scenic. But the canyon itself was disappointing because the river was almost dry. But it was definitely red – due to the color of the mud and the dusk. We headed to our last destination for the day - bison paddock. A vast space where wild bisons are found, fenced though. We saw more than a dozen of them – quite ugly creatures I must admit.

On the way back, just as we took a turn into the highway I spotted a coyote trotting along a farm fence (I thought it was a fox till I looked it up the next day). Unfortunately since it was the highway we couldn’t stop. And by the time others saw it, we had zoomed past L

We stopped at Pincher Creek Village for some gas and a quick bite. It also had gotten much cooler. We reached Calgary late evening, tired and sleepy. That was the end of a satisfying trip. All of us did have a smile as we went to sleep dreaming of bears but not bulls for a change.

More info on Waterton is available at:
http://www.watertonpark.com/
http://www.watertoninfo.com/

Photos: will be uploaded/ updated once I get the pictures from other cameras.