Glacier National Park (Montana, USA) and Waterton Lakes National Park (Alberta, Canada) are considered an international peace park as they share the border. As such, a passport is required if you want to see both. The Many Glaciers section of Glacier National Park was definitely a highlight and where we saw black bears. Waterton’s Prince of Wales Hotel is one of the windiest places in Canada and has a beautiful lake behind it. We also got out and walked around Calgary for about an hour or so and would definitely return to the city again in the future. Plus, as one of the few cities we visited, I actually got my treats here! While we were very non-traditional, starting and ending our trip in Jackson, Wyoming (home to the Grand Tetons), most people probably would have used Calgary as a jumping off point.
Going to the Sun Road (Glacier)
We arrived through the west entrance by Lake McDonald on a very overcast and rainy day. Going to the Sun Road is supposed to be extremely scenic and a big part of the reason Glacier receives high rankings amongst all of the national parks. It’s approximately 50 miles long across the main section of the park and takes nearly 2 hours to drive without stops. Unfortunately for us, we didn’t have that top-ranking experience, but we did still really enjoy this park. We did have the fortunate timing of finding a group of big horned sheep hanging out across the street from the Logan Pass Visitor Center and the street to ourselves to enjoy the drive-through tunnel. At the end of our trip, we were able to dip back into the park and actually see Lake McDonald, the largest lake in the park and the colorful IG worthy stones. There’s also a cute gift shop here.
Hidden Lake Trail (Glacier)
Our first hike of the day was by the Logan Pass Visitor Center. We geared up with our rain coats, rain boots, waterproof pants and poncho to cover Addy in her on-person carrier. There is a long stair climb and then a nice path, even with the rain. We found colorful stones, a waterfall and a good hike overall. The only bummer was because of the rain and fog, we couldn’t see the view intended for the end point of this 3 mile round-trip hike.
Virginia and St. Mary’s Waterfalls (Glacier)
This was the only other hike we did in the park. It was a relatively easy round-trip 3.6 mile hike that took us to two beautiful cascading waterfalls. There are also beautifully colored rocks here to see if you don’t have time to stop at Lake McDonald.
The Many Glaciers Section (Glacier)
This section of the park is totally separate from the Going to the Sun Road portion of the park. Once we exited the main road on the St. Mary’s (east) side, we headed north about 45 minutes. There were tons of potholes on the road, but the views were incredible. We could see glaciers on our drive in. We eventually spotted cars pulled over and got out to watch a mommy and baby black bear foraging. While watching these bears play, Addy made a noise and we turned to see a black bear cross the road behind us, probably less than 50 feet! Scary to think he was hiding in the bushes so close to us. I’m convinced Addy knew something was going on! From here we drove to the Glacier Park Lodge where we came across a female big horned sheep walking on the sidewalk. Something about how the Lodge looked and the setting on the reflective body of water with mountains in the background reminded me of Switzerland, which made sense considering it is a “swiss styled lodge”. There was a musician playing inside and the view from the back porch was the perfect way to end our time in Glacier.
Border Crossing to Canada
We wrapped up our evening in Glacier, drove down a long road with free range cattle warnings, until we made it to the border crossing booths. Did you know that not all border crossings are 24 hours? Well, we learned the hard way as we arrived to find it closed. My advice for next time, check the border crossing hours. It’s also smart to keep your phone on airplane mode anywhere near a border to avoid potential international fees. We made a U-turn and found our way to another border crossing that was fortunately opened and uneventful to cross.
Waterton Lakes National Park (Canada)
We started our morning super early on a mission to find a restroom. We found one by the beautiful Cameron Falls near Waterton (town). Even though it was really overcast and slightly rainy here too, we decided to try the Bertha hike to Bertha Falls. There were black bear warning signs everywhere, so we had that ounce of fear during our hike, but didn’t see any bears here. We did get great views of the Prince of Wales Hotel. We eventually made it to lower Bertha falls before returning along the same path (3.3 mile roundtrip hike).
The Prince of Wales Hotel is worth a stop. We thought the Lodge at Glacier was prettier, but it was fun to pop inside and also take in the views from behind the hotel. We got some great pictures here with Addy. At 11 months old, Addy brought her favorite animal at the time, baby panda (my old TY beanie baby) with her on the trip. She discovered her love for driving the car, turning on and off the radio and dancing to the music. We also realized that she loves pretzels! Lucky for her this is one of our favorite road trip snacks.
Calgary
Calgary was a quick pit stop for us. We figured we had to at least check it out and we took the scenic drive to it. We started with a drive through downtown and took some nice pictures from across the river of the city skyscrapers. We headed to Sidewalk Citizen where I got a delicious ginormous chocolate cookie with powdered sugar. We then found a metered spot downtown and took a nice walk along the Riverwalk and through Central Memorial Park. The flowers were blooming and if we had more time we would have walked to St. Patrick’s Island. We found a small mall and I was able to get a coffee treat at Good Earth Coffee House before we got back on the road and ready for our most anticipated park, Banff National Park. You can read all about this part of our trip in Banff, There It Is!
Treat Yourself to Travel 