The First International Peace Park

Our initial adventure in the USA came to an end as we extended our travels to our neighbors in the great white north, Canada.  And what better way to make that transition than by visiting the world’s first International Peace Park, Glacier National Park in Montana and Waterton Lakes National Park  in Alberta.  These two parks were the first parks in the world to be designated as an International Peace Park called the Waterton Glacier International Peace park.

We spent our first week in Glacier National Park at a KOA just outside of the park.  It rained the first few days we were there so we had a few ‘veg out’ days in the Airstream.  We were at the park a bit early in the season so the main attraction, the Going to the Sun Road, was mostly closed.

The KOA playground was decent so Adele got plenty of playtime in while at Glacier.

We hiked up Avalanche Creek to Avalanche Lake…

 

…and drove to Twin Medicine Lake on the other side of the park.

Adele and I did get some ‘practice fishing’ in twice.  I’ll call it ‘real fishing’ if, no when, we actually catch a fish.

We also spent a day in the surrounding towns hitting a yarn shop and winery.  Kimberly stocked up on some local yarn in Whitefish, Montana and we both had our first ‘cherry wine’ at Glacier Sun Winery.  I can’t speak to the yarn since I don’t knit, but the wine was decent.  Needless to say Jermaine Stewart’s one hit wonder; ‘We don’t have to take our clothes off’ was my ear-worm for the rest of the week.

We don’t have to take our clothes off, to have a good time. Oh-no.
We could dance & party all night, and drink some cherry wine. Uh-huh.

I always wondered what the hell cherry wine was; Strawberry Hill, Mad Dog 20/20 or the like?  Well it was actually not bad; very similar to a dry red.

 

Overall, we had a good week.  But Glacier National Park is just so big it’s hard to see it all and do it justice in one week; especially when it rains a lot.

Our next stop, Waterton Lakes National Park.  Crossing the border was a breeze and the drive into Waterton was beautiful.  Waterton is a very small town in the middle of the park so our campground was right in the thick of things.

We hiked Bear Hump Trail to a great scenic overview of the lake and townsite.

Afterwards, we cleaned up a bit and walked to the historic Prince of Wales Hotel for high tea; which was delicious!

We took a boat tour of Waterton Lake and a short bike ride around town.

We drove to Red Rock Canyon and hiked to Blakiston Falls.  The drive out was spectacular and so were the falls!

 

We finished our time in Waterton with a hike to Crandell Lake.

We also saw a bunch of wildlife while in Waterton; mostly right in the campground.

And we were almost attacked by another squirrel.

Overall, we had a great time in Waterton.  If I had to pick between Glacier and Waterton, I would definitely go back to Waterton first, even though both parks are lovely.

-Craig