So...we had to go back to Canada to see a bear. This morning, we took Speedy out to charge the batteries and visit the northern neighbor of Glacier National Park, Canada's Waterton Lakes National Park. The two, together, make up the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.
It was about a 60-mile ride to the Waterton entrance, crossing the border to Canada about 50 miles from the campground. We arrived at the Waterton townsite at about 11:15 AM, after finally seeing our first bear. Shortly after we had entered the park, we saw a group of cars parked along side the road overlooking a fairly open field. As we passed we could see a bear in a group of bushes about 30 yards away. We also stopped. It was a Grizzly feeding on whatever the bushes were. Every once in a while, it would stand up and look around, then drop back down to continue thrashing about. We watched for a while before heading on. Things were looking up.
Unlike Glacier, Waterton actually has a small town right on the lake. There are shops, hotels, services and restaurants, with the Prince of Wales Hotel looking over it all. The Prince of Wales is one of the few survivors of the railroad age of national park travel. We had decided to take the boat out to Goat Haunt, at the far end of the lake and had about an hour and a half to kill. We toured the town and had an early lunch at Zum's cafe. I think it was a toned-down version of itself since one of the waitresses was wearing a T-shirt for Zum's Roadkill Cafe, "You kill it, we grill it". There was no roadkill on the menu.
After lunch, we took the boat tour to Goat Haunt Ranger Station, which is back in Glacier National Park. The boat was a classic wooden lake tour boat, the International, built by the railroad for the Prince of Wales Hotel. It meandered up the lake to a running commentary, but the highlight was a Bald Eagle sighting in a tree along the shore (we saw the same eagle, different tree, on the way back).
At Goat Haunt, most of the passengers got off for a quick look at the Peace Park Pavilion and then back on for the return trip. We opted to take the three-and-a-half hour layover for the next boat to take a couple of short hikes. This meant going through Customs. Yes, there is really a US Customs Station right at the trailhead. It was two burly, armed, blue-uniformed customs agents stand at the entrance to the trails. "May I have your passports? Please remove your sunglasses." No mamby-pamby park rangers at this post. (Well, not counting the young woman ranger who met the boat, who was an enforcement ranger and also armed). It was actually the easiest entry into the US for Ellen in years. They didn't ask about her lost passport from 1996.
We took one-and-a-half hikes. The first out to Rainbow Falls; not a large falls but an easy hike. The other half-hike was up towards the Goat Haunt Overlook, an 800 foot climb in less than a mile. We only got about halfway before turning back, since we didn't know exactly how much further it was and how much time we'd have to get back to the boat. (I did mention that I've gotten quite slow going up hill). We made it back in plenty of time .
The boat ride back was pretty uneventful, except for seeing the eagle again. We stopped at the Prince of Wales to take a quick look inside. It is an impressive timber frame building, at least the main hall is. It was then back to the US. The bear was still working his patch of berries, so we stopped for another look. At the same stop, but about 100 yards away on the other side of the road was a Black Bear, walking along and edge of woods—two bears in the same day.
Then there were the cows. The road back traverses an indian reservation, which has open grazing. There were a large number of cattle roaming the road on the way back. We actually had to stop a couple of times to thread our way through a small herd.
It was back through US customs again and this time a comedy that should have gotten us locked up. As we approached a small gate house with three lanes, we headed into the wrong one. There was a sign that said RVs and trailers that we didn't see. The ranger stood in our path and pointing up at the sign with a disgusted look on his face. We thought we were just a van ... At any rate I backed up and headed across to the lane he was pointing at. There was a strange crunchy noise under the van. I gasped and asked Ellen to check it out. She got out, found a traffic cone under Speedy and started laughing as she pulled it out. I drove on ahead, leaving her to walk back to the van, laughing all the way. The customs agent grouchily told her to get in the van. He asked for passports and ran them through his computer while a second agent actually inspected inside the van, looking in the refrigerator and closets. After handing the passports back to a still laughing Ellen, he changed his mind and took them back again asking her the familiar question about her lost passport. See, we're glad we finally made it back into the US.
Since it was late, we stopped at the Two Sisters Cafe near Babb for dinner; buffalo burgers for each of us. We had intended to order the beef cheesburgers, but Montana law requires that ground beef be cooked well-done, but not the buffalo—two medium-rare buffalo burgers, please.
Not a bad day: two hikes, a boat ride, two bears and an eagle...not to mention the cows.
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