Day 3-Waterton Lakes National Park

By far Waterton Lakes National Park was Blake and I's favorite place on the trip. We pulled into town in the morning and had a whole day of fun. There was a little townsite down by the lake and the best wildlife.

We started out the morning by going down Akamina Parkway to our end destination Cameron Lake. On our way in to the lake we got to see our first bear. It was a grizzly and we didn't get any good pictures because it was on my side of the car; no further explanation needed. When we got real close I freaked out because it was only about 3 feet away and I made Blake pull forward. We had plans to go on a canoe ride at Cameron Lake because they say that there are tons of bears at the end of lake you can go and watch. To bad we had to put yet another thing on our "to do" list for next time. There was still way to much snow so they wouldn't let anyone out on the water. On the drive back I told Blake that I would be happy if I could see a bear in a tree...well as we rounded the corner I got to see just that. A baby black bear up in the tree.

We headed back to town and encountered deer everywhere! No joke, you couldn't pass a yard and not see a deer. We came across a mom and her two fawns. Allie just loved them and I had fun trying to get a great picture. We stopped to play at a little park in town and let Allie burn off some energy. We headed over to Cameron Falls, which ended up not being to impressive, so we headed off to lunch. There weren't many choices and so we decided to go to the place that looked the busiest....Zum's; it was famous for fried chicken. Well, we didn't venture to try the fried chicken but I did have my first buffalo burger...so good.

After lunch we drove the Red Rock Parkway, an 8 mile road of beautiful prairie's and colorful mountains. On our way back down we got to see three more bears in the trees. There was a mamma black bear and her 2 cubs. We checked into our hotel, which was our splurge for our anniversary. We got to stay at the Prince of Wales Hotel on the very top floor overlooking the lake. It ended up being a beautiful view, but a very old room. I think we spent more time on the balcony then in our room.

As we went on our evening drive we got to encounter 2 more black bears...Blake's philosophy did not hold true. After I saw my first bear, Blake told me that we wouldn't see any more bears. He said that everyone always gets to see one bear per trip...not true here. We had a great little time in this park.

A view of Cameron Lake and the large glacier in the back

My first sighting of a bear in the tree

Allie enjoying herself at this old school park. Everything was made out of metal and wood.

My favorite picture of one of the baby fawns

The Prince of Wales Hotel. If you look at the top balcony, you might be able to see the speck which is Allie and I

The view off of our balcony at the Hotel

A black bear photographed by Blake

Another black bear photographed by Blake

Our view that night overlooking Waterton Lake