Waterton Lakes: Cameron and Blakiston Falls

Cameron Falls

Cameron falls are within walking distance of our campsite when we stayed at Waterton Lakes. We were in the back section of Townsite campground, which backed up to the road that went right past Cameron falls (see the map here). We didn't have that map with us though, and didn't realize it was so close, but we were going to another waterfall after Cameron, so we drove to the parking lot next to the falls. We felt kind of silly when we realized just how close we were to our RV. At least we didn't drive straight back to our campground.

watching the chipmunks below the railing

We thought it was interesting to see a waterfall so close to everything (the campground, the town, the roads) and to see the railings all around it. None of the other waterfalls we saw on our trip had any sort of railings or barriers, but we could see why this one did. Because of its proximity to everything, there were a lot of visitors, and they weren't all using common sense in what they were doing.

After checking out Cameron falls, we drove to the end of Red Rock Parkway, where we parked at the trailhead for Blakiston falls (you can find a map of the park with the falls marked here). The hike was about 1.8 miles round trip and not too strenuous. The trail actually continued past the falls for quite a ways, but we didn’t go any further than the falls.

It was so beautiful! Though not peaceful- River threw a fit in the middle of the trail because he wanted Mr M to carry him on his shoulders and Mr M wouldn't do it (we'd just started the hike). Nothing like getting judged by random hikers passing by. Good times.

There were two viewing platforms at the falls that looked new and shiny- one about midway up the falls and one at the top of the falls. It made it a lot easier to get out and see the falls safely, but I wasn’t able to get a good picture of the falls without a viewing platform in the picture as well.

upriver from the falls was pretty neat- the blue glacier water was visible here, even if it wasn't so visible below the falls

River perked up along the trail and was calmer by the time we got to the viewing platforms, though I couldn't get him and Sunshine to cooperate and face the camera at the same time.

Ocean walked part of the way back to the car, but we had to stop multiple times to pick up sticks and random rocks. He sure was cute though, and he had fun :)

We only had a very limited amount of time to spend in Waterton Lakes on this trip, but we look forward to going back and doing some more exploring and hiking. We found a fairly comprehensive list of hikes here, which is quite useful for picking hikes to attempt. We used it to find the shorter hikes that fit into our available time frame.