Canada/West 2022:
Day 12 - Waterton Lakes National Park

	Sunday, August 21, 2022: We packed up and left the hotel just before 8 AM, getting this shot of the Taber Giant Corn statue, acknowledging that Taber is known as the "Corn Capital of Canada."
	... before heading across the highway to McDonald's for breakfast. Check out that beautiful Egg BLT McMuffin.
	We were really enjoying the Egg BLT Everything Bagel and decided to get them while we still could.
	We had noticed that some farmers had cylindrical hay bales in their fields while some had rectangular bales. These were rectangular.
	We passed cornfields, ...
	... and giant farm equipment, ...
	... and storage devices for stuff that comes from farmland. We loved the look of the grain elevator with slanty sides, ...
	... and the Canadian flag painted on the side of the barn.
	Seeing shipping containers stacked near houses really makes you realize how big these containers are.
	We were headed southwest, and we could just see the outline of the Canadian Rockies looming in the distance.
	The white stone used for Mormon temples is so distinctive that when you see it in the distance, you know exactly what it is. We detoured off our route slightly to get a closer look at the Cardston Alberta Temple. More than 40% of all Mormons in Canada live in southern Alberta.
	The Chief Mountain border crossing is the one that we had used in 2004 when we'd gone from Glacier National Park in the US to Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada. This border crossing closed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and has not yet re-opened.
	Check out the font on this Cowboy Trail sign. This scenic route through the foothills is known for its horseback trails, guest ranches, and western themed attractions.
	This is Alberta's version of Adopt-a-Highway sign.
	It was interesting to see tipis with a brand new car next to them and a tractor mowing the grass.
	Check out the eagle statue on the left side of this photo, and the old-time metal wagon in the rocky area near the center left. There's even a moose cutout among the trees.
	We were approaching a town named Mountain View, which seemed very appropriate.
	We were mesmerized by the mountains as we got closer.
	The countryside here is just so beautiful.
	Shortly after 10 AM we crossed the boundary of Waterton Lakes National Park, ...
	... and immediately stopped at the overlook for Maskinonge Lake.
	It was a beautiful area, on a hill overlooking the lake. The lake itself was mirror smooth and reflected the mountains in the background.
	As we approached the entrance to the park, there were three lanes: two on the left for people who needed to purchase a pass to enter, and the completely unoccupied right lane for people who held a Canada National Park annual pass. We drove up that right lane, presented our parks pass at the barcode scanner, the barricade went up, and we drove right through. The entire process took less than one minute. We were so glad that we had purchased an annual pass in advance.
	Welcome to Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park! This is a union of the Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada and Glacier National Park in the United States.
	Isn't it beautiful?
	This crossing sign warned us to look out for bears and their cubs.
	Looking out over Middle Waterton Lake, we were able to get our first glimpse of the Prince of Wales Hotel.
	It sits majestically on top of a hill at the joining of Middle Waterton Lake and Upper Waterton Lake.
	Oh, we also kept an eye out for horses crossing the road.
	Our first stop in Waterton was Marina Point.
	We love a good metal sign embedded in the walkway.
	Debbie took a photo looking southward, ...
	... toward the Goat Haunt Ranger Station on the US side of the park. That way lies the trailhead for the hike up to Hole in the Wall Campground, where she had backpacked with her whole family in 1974 and with her dad and brother after her mother died in 1985.
	There's the Prince of Wales Hotel again. It has a commanding view of the entire area. Three weeks later, the UK would have a new Prince of Wales, but on this day, that title was held by Prince Charles.
	The marina area had great viewing areas and walkways, ...
	... featuring different animal prints in the concrete. Here's elk, ...
	... black bear, ...
	... wolf, ...
	... cougar, ...
	... and bighorn sheep.
	At the very end of the marina was a platform with two red chairs.
	They faced the Prince of Wales Hotel, naturally.
	Here's a close-up of the back of the hotel, with its large lobby windows in the center. We had reserved a room with a lake view, and we wondered which one we would get.
	We walked by the dock area. This is where you would normally board a boat to travel to the Goat Haunt Ranger Station, but with that area still closed due to the pandemic, they are now only offering scenic tours of the lake.
	We left the marina and drove over to Cameron Falls, which is on the west end of the town. They have a parking area and viewing site, which included ...
	... this spider. It was a polite Canadian spider who travelled along the rail and minded its own business.
	We headed toward the campground at the southern end of the town, parked the van, and walked out onto the beach to sit for a while.
	This is Cameron Bay, a little cove where people can swim and paddleboard and scuba dive and play in the water.
	We watched as the Miss Waterton made its way back toward its berth after a tour around the lake.
	We headed back toward the hotel, past the completely full RV park, ...
	... and houses with their gardens surrounded by deer fencing. There was so much fencing around everything edible that we had started referring to them as "Canadian gardens."
	We had spent time in this park on Emerald Bay when we were here in 2004.
	We parked in the lot and made our way to the Prince of Wales Hotel.
	The hotel was built in 1927 and is beautifully maintained.
	We made our way to the lobby, with its huge chandelier, ...
	... and its floor-to-ceiling windows. We recreated a photo of Debbie standing in front of them. She's tried to take one in the same spot every time she's been here.
	Here is her 1985 version ...
	... and her 2004 version.
	We had reservations at noon for afternoon tea in the Royal Stewart Dining Room, ...
	... where we were seated at a corner table with a view of the lake.
	For our first selection, Debbie had chosen the Spring Jasmine green tea, and Tom picked the African Nectar rooibos tea.
	We enjoyed watching the weather change over the lake, with the mountains at the far end of the lake becoming less visible as the afternoon wore on.
	Our server brought us a tray with three levels of treats, with two servings of everything.
	The bottom layer contained cucumber and cream cheese sandwiches, a pinwheel with pesto, and a ham sandwich on crusty bread.
	The second layer contained scones and strawberry shortcake pastries, served with clotted cream and strawberry jam, ...
	... and the top layer contained a chocolate madeleine, a strawberry, a ground cherry, two lemon tarts, and two butter cookies.
	For our second cup of tea, Tom switched to a breakfast black tea, and ...
	... Debbie had the African Nectar rooibos tea.
	We watched as a couple got married on the patio, ...
	... and then posed for photos. When we mentioned it to our server, she remarked that it happens a lot.
	Shortly after 1 PM, after we had finished our tea, we decided to see if our room was ready. Check-in wasn't officially until later in the day, but we were delighted when they said that our room was ready. We headed toward the stairs, ...
	... but decided to shop before heading up to the room. Our server told us that we would each get a free box of tea if we showed them our receipt.
	Oooh. Socks. We're suckers for socks. Debbie picked up two pairs of socks and a t-shirt, and Tom got a fleece jacket.
	We contemplated the coasters for a long time, but decided against them in favor of two magnets: one that has the windows from the lobby on it, and the other was a Starry Night theme. We went to the counter to pay for our purchases and to get our two boxes of tea and then headed upstairs.
	The stairwell from the first floor to the second floor has an awesome relief map of the area around Glacier National Park and Waterton Lakes National Park.This map was located in the lobby in 2004.
	Here's a zoomed in look at the Waterton Lakes area, with the Prince of Wales hotel at the top and Goat Haunt Ranger Station near the bottom. The US-Canada border is shown as the black line near the middle of the picture. The dashed red line near the bottom left shows the route from Goat Haunt past Lake Francis up to Hole in the Wall, which is just north of the blue tear-drop shape near the left edge.
	We made our way up to room 408 on the fourth floor.
	This is the view from the room looking back at the entry door. The bathroom door is on the right nearest the entry, and a closet is on the close right.
	Here's the room itself. There's a king bed, two sitting chairs, a door out to the balcony, and a dresser.
	The bed was a massive iron frame affair with plenty of pillows.
	The bathroom was very modern and had one of the largest showers we had seen in a hotel room.
	We headed out to the balcony, which was shared by the four rooms on the lakefront side of the fourth floor.
	This is the view looking toward Emerald Bay where we had spent time on the beach earlier in the day.
	The view down Upper Waterton Lake was spectacular. There was rain falling to the south, but it was still nice weather here.
	The patio area had been redone since we were last here, with the large grass lawn being replaced by a paved viewing area and walkways.
	That's Middle Waterton Lake to the east. There was a picnic area on the southern point of the channel between Middle Waterton Lake and Upper Waterton Lake.
	It was nice to see that the red chairs in the marina area were getting use.
	The Miss Waterton was making its way out of the marina for the 2:00 PM tour.
	We enjoyed a Flamin' Hot Mountain Dew and an Imperial Mango Schilling Cider while we soaked up the beautiful views with perfect weather.
	Here's a close-up of the channel between the Middle and Upper Waterton Lakes. There were lots of kayaks and paddleboards that made their way between the two lakes.
	We zoomed in four stories down to photograph this squirrel that was carefully prowling the grounds. It was very brave considering how many people with dogs were on the patio.
	We were starting to hear thunder rumbling and noticed that the clouds were finally starting to make their way to the Waterton area.
	The far end of the lake was getting harder to see, ...
	... and many of the kayakers were making their way back to the park.
	Check out this woman paddling what looks like an oversized surfboard with two adorable tots on the front. We hoped they would make it back before the rain started.
	There's still sunlight peeking through the clouds, and we had yet to feel any rain.
	We were determined to stay on the balcony as long as we could, ...
	... but ten minutes later, the rain had finally arrived and we headed inside. It was really coming down on the north side of the hotel, with the valley beyond the parking lot hardly visible.
	Thirty minutes later, the rain had lifted, and we saw Miss Waterton heading out again.
	The rain front had moved through, and the view was clear down to the southern end of the lake.
	We decided to head down to the lobby. Here's the view across the atrium from our room, ...
	... and the view looking down to the lobby.
	We got seats at one of the tables in the lobby, ...
	... and ordered tasty beers to celebrate the day. Tom ordered an Oldman River Pale Ale (left), and Debbie ordered a Burnside Blood Orange Blonde Ale from Medicine Hat Brewing (right). Cheers!
	There were shelves in the corners of the lobby with board games for people to use while they were here. What a great idea!
	We were enjoying our time in the lobby so much that we decided to have dinner here as well. Debbie ordered the Lounge Burger, ...
	... and Tom ordered the Fish and Chips.
	It was a fantastic way to enjoy the evening.
	After we finished our beers and our food, we made our way out to the patio to take a look down the lake. We used Debbie's new camera with its flip-up viewscreen to take a selfie.
	The sun was out again, and we got one more shot of the hotel that we both love so much.
	We decided to go out to the van to get some last minute items, and noticed this monument just outside the hotel. It commemorates the goodwill between the United States and Canada which led to establishing the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.
	Check out this bear-shaped license plate for the Northwest Territories. How cool is that?
	On the way back into the hotel, we noticed this water bowl near the entrance that read: "...dog, cat, deer, bear, fox, birds, sheep and anything else with fur feathers or hair. Help yourself to a nice cool drink." Aww. That's so sweet.
	We ventured back out onto the balcony to enjoy the evening light, ...
	... and the views all the way down the lake. This is such a special place, and we had had a perfect day.
	The haze and clouds moved through as the sun went down, ...
	... and the lights of Waterton town lit up Emerald Bay.  Day 13 >