Waterton Lakes National Park boat tour
On Day 32 of our RV trip – Sunday, May 27th – the big event of the day was a 2-hour boat cruise on Upper Waterton Lake. The weather on Saturday hadn’t been great, but Sunday was as perfect a day as we could have ordered to be on the lake.
We had bought our tickets on Saturday, and were at the dock 15 minutes before the 10:00 am sailing time. The cruises, run by the Waterton Inter-Nation Shoreline Cruise Company from May 5th through October 8th, cost $51 each.
While much of the information we read beforehand indicated that cruises are done with the historic 165-passenger M.V. International, which was built on Waterton Lake in 1927, we went on the modern 125-passenger Miss Waterton. I got one of the 20 spots on the open upper deck, while Cathy stayed on the open rear part of the lower deck.
The tour does a complete circumnavigation of Upper Wateron Lake. This was the view back to the south, to the townsite.
A particular fine perspective on the historic Prince of Wales Hotel.
Getting a broad view of the effects of the Kenow Wildfire was very interesting in places.
We pulled in within feet of these impressive cliffs. I think he was kidding about cliff divers, but expect that he was serious about it being a popular place to conduct weddings.
The scenery was too incredible to properly describe in words or even to capture in photos.
The Canada/USA border cut on the east side of Upper Waterton Lake.
And the border cut and monuments on the west shore. The guide said that the border cut was last slashed out 4 years ago. What a job that would be!
If I had taken notes, I’d be able to tell you the name of the next two creeks and the icefield beyond. I took a notepad but was too busy taking photos to be writing 🙂
Many of the peaks along the lake rise to over 8,000 feet.
The Goat Haunt Ranger Station, Montana.
This is Montana’s Waterton River.
A popular hiking trail leads south from the dock at Goat Haunt.
The upper deck of Miss Waterton. Crew checked at least twice to ensure that only 20 people were up there, but few people were moving around.
I really wasn’t ready to leave. If the engine had quit and we had to wait a couple of hours for another boat, I’d have been okay with it. Well, with no bathroom on board, maybe one hour 🙂
More views of the effects of the Kenow Wildfire, which only reached about halfway down Upper Wateron Lake.
Bertha Peak, which looms above the Townsite Campground, is pretty much completely burnt.
The Townsite Campground from the water.
That’s snow in the yard of that home – fairly deep snow (over a foot deep).
Right at noon, we docked back at the Waterton Townsite, and our exploration of Waterton Lakes National Park continued in other ways.
The next day, we headed north towards Cochrane, where we’d be for a week or so.
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