A boat ride, a car ride, and re-crossing the border August 11, 2014

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We met with my sister in the morning, and decided to take the boat tour down the lake. Lower Waterton Lake lies south of the Prince of Wales Hotel and over the course of some nine miles extends into the United States. Waterton Lakes (Canada) and Glacier (United States) actually form together the first of what is now several international peace parks in areas where ecological and geological systems cross international borders. The park here, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was dedicated by the two countries on July 4, 1932.

You can take a boat down the lake from the town of Waterton to Goat Haunt, Montana, and if your credentials are okay you can disembark and hike out from there. The 32 mile hike to the next vestige of civilization did not beckon to us, so we just did the round trip. Along the way, you cross the 45th parallel marking the border. It is kept free of heavy vegetation by international crews that come in every few years and cut back the heavy vegetation. This method arose after protests of the use of toxic defoliants.

At the end of the lake, the boat docks and you have about half an hour to stroll the area and grab the occasional ripe thimbleberry (a type of wild raspberry that is also cultivated but not commercially viable because the soft fruit does not ship well). On the cruise back we pulled into a small bay and were able to see a vivid example of the folding of sedimentary rock that is so common in this area of uplift. We also saw two bald eagles.

Laura Lee and Bill were going to stay around Waterton for a while, and so we departed for Glacier National Park by land this time.

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