Hiking In Waterton Lakes Park
Waterton Lakes Park's 255km of trails have a reputation as not only the best constructed in the Canadian Rockies (with Yoho's Lake O'Hara), but also among the most easily graded, well marked and scenically routed. Like Moraine Lake in Banff National Park - and unlike Banff and Jasper - you can also access superb walks easily without a car. Bar one or two outlying hikes, three key areas contain trails and trailheads: the townsite itself, which has two magnificent short walks; the Akamina Parkway ; and the Red Rock Canyon Parkway . Most walks are day-hikes, climaxing at small alpine lakes cradled in spectacular hanging valleys. Options for backpacking are necessarily limited by the park's size, though the 36-kilometre Tamarack Trail , following the crenellations of the Continental Divide between the Akamina Parkway (trailhead as for Rowe Lakes ) and Red Rock Canyon, is rated as one of the Rockies' greatest high-line treks (maximum elevation 2560m); the twenty-kilometre Carthew-Alderson Trail from Cameron Lake to Waterton (maximum elevation 2311m), a popular day's outing, can be turned into a two-day trip by overnighting at the Alderson Lake campsite. To do it in a day, take advantage of the hiker shuttle service to the trailhead offered by Park Transport (tel 859-2378) based in the Tamarack Mall on Mount View Road . In summary, this is a great park in which to base yourself for a few days' hiking: to do the cream of the hikes you'd first stroll the Bear's Hump for views of Waterton town and the lakes; then walk all or part of the Bertha Lake Trail (day or half-day) from the townsite. Next day take a boat to Goat Haunt and walk back on the Waterton Lakeshore Trail . Then try the Crypt Lake Trail from the townsite and/or the Rowe Lake-Lineham Ridge Trail , both ranked among the best day-walks in the Rockies. Finally gird your loins for the longer Carthew-Alderson Trail , possible in a day.
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