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Published: June 26th 2023
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Emma and Michael have got wedding chores to attend to, not to mention sleepy heads and hangovers after last night’s other wedding, so the rest of us head down to Waterton Lakes National Park, an hour and a bit south-west of Lethbridge on the United States border. Issy and I have been there a couple of times before and were suitably impressed, so we’re keen to show Scott and Troy some real Canadian mountains. We’re also keen to show them the spectacular Blakiston Falls which readers of posts from earlier trips might remember are named after one of our direct descendants, the English explorer Thomas Blakiston. My mother was a Blakiston, and Blakiston’s my middle name (yes, really).
First stop is the iconic 1927 Prince of Wales Hotel overlooking Upper Waterton Lake. We remember previously that all the staff here get around in kilts, and sure enough, we’re greeted at the entrance to the car park by a kilt clad lass …. from Geelong, just down the road from our home in Melbourne. There’s another guy in a kilt trying to dig out weeds from a garden bed, which looks just slightly incongruous.
We head down into Waterton Park
and stop for lunch at Trappers Mountain Grill. We’ve been here a couple of times before. It couldn’t be any more Canadian if it tried. Troy says he really wants to see a bear, and here’s his chance to see one really close up … OK it might be stuffed, but it is less than a foot away from him, and looks suspiciously like it might be sniffing a bowl of plastic flowers. Do bears really sniff flowers?
We wander along the lake shore. There are quite a few people sunning themselves on the pebbles, which looks quite pleasant. There’s also a family of four peeling down to their bathers and heading for the water. Huh? They all shriek in pain when they first dip their toes in, which isn’t too surprising; most of the water here’s probably coming from snow melt and glaciers, so it’s probably only a degree or so off being ice. They’ve got to be doing this for a bet …. well either that or they’re refugees from Siberia.
It’s a bit of a zoo here; a few deer, and gophers, lots of gophers, and lots of gopher holes. They look really cute, but
apparently they’re a real pest. They multiply like rabbits, and according to one source if you get them in your backyard it will turn it “into a big dirt mound”. It seems there are programmes in place all over the country to wipe them out …. with strychnine. That doesn’t sound quite so cute.
We head off for the Falls, narrowly dodging a couple of deer wandering casually across the road in front of the car. Issy, Emma and I did see a real live bear when we were here last year, but not before we were fooled by a cardboard cutout placed strategically on the side of the road. I can’t resist the opportunity to fool the boys ….. and they fall for it hook, line and sinker. That was fun. Such a cruel father.
We head off on the one kilometre hike into the Falls. It was heavily overcast and spooky looking when I came last year, and somehow looks a bit blander in today’s bright sun, but impressive nonetheless.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Beauty surrounds you
You are having some great travels.