Waterton Lakes National Park

Glacier NP actually reaches into Canada, where it is known as Waterton Lakes NP. We knew this, but didn’t think we’d have a chance to see that part of the park since you need a passport to get back into the US if you leave. We’d applied for the kids’ passports in May, but they say it can take 6-8 weeks to process them, so we thought they’d arrive after we left on our trip in June.

We lucked out though, and they arrived less than a week before we hit the road. I quickly checked our itinerary and changed it to include a quick trip to Canada and made reservations to stay at Townsite campground in Waterton Lakes.

We only spent one night, but we were able to see a couple waterfalls while we were there.  This was the first campground we stayed at during this trip that had full water, sewer, and electric hookups. It was so nice to be able to charge all our devices and run the air conditioner J

Canada is celebrating its 150^th anniversary and all national parks are free this year, even if you’re not Canadian. We thought that was super nice of them. Their facilities are also nice- at least the ones we saw. They all looked new and in good repair, or were being repaired. Their buildings are a nice pale aqua/teal color rather than the drab brown seen most often at US national parks.

it was a short walk from our campsite to the town, which had an abundance of touristy stores and restaurants. we walked around for a few minutes, but didn't have time to do more than grab a picture with this bench (Sunshine insisted) and a sticker for our souvenir collection.

Waterton is quite a bit smaller than Glacier and it requires less time to drive around and through. But it sure is beautiful, and there's so much we didn't have a chance to do: more hiking, boating, exploring the town, and so on.

We want to return, but we will do so at a different time of year. The aspen seed was really bad at Waterton Lakes (there’s where we learned it’s aspen seed, not cottonwood fluff), and my allergic reaction worsened in the brief period of time we were there. It’s unfortunate since it’s a beautiful area, but I was not tempted to stretch out our visit. We had to hit the road and find clear air.