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WATERTON TOWNSITE , the park's only base, accommodation source and services centre, is beautifully set on Upper Waterton Lake, but offers little by way of cultural distraction. Most people are here to walk , windsurf, horse ride or take boat trips on the lake . There are also a handful of town trails, and a trio of cracking hikes - Bertha Lake, Crypt Lake and the Upper Waterton Lakeshore - which start from the townsite . Having long been a poor relation to the "big four" national parks in the Rockies, Waterton is now so popular that it's essential to book accommodation well in advance for much of July and August. Two wonderfully scenic access roads from Waterton probe west into the park int-erior and provide picnic spots, viewpoints and the starting point for most other trails: the Akamina Parkway follows the Cameron Creek valley for 20km to Cameron Lake, a large subalpine lake where you can follow easy trails or rent canoes, rowing boats and paddleboats. The Red Rock Canyon Parkway weaves up Blakiston Creek for about 15km to the mouth of the water-gouged Red Rock Canyon, so called because of the oxidation of local argillite, a rock with a high iron content that turns rust-red on exposure to the elements. The road's one of the best places to see wildlife in the park without too much effort and, like the Akamina Parkway, has the usual pleasant panoply of picnic sites, trailheads and interpretive notice boards. If you're without transport for these roads see "Practicalities" and "Activities" for details of hiker shuttle services and car and bike rentals. The third named road in the park, the Chief Mountain International Highway (25km) runs east from the park entrance at Maskinonge Lake along the park's eastern border. After 7km it reaches a fine viewpoint over the mountain-backed Waterton Valley and then passes the park-run Belly River Campground before reaching the US-Canadian border crossing (open June to late Sept 7am-10pm). When this crossing's closed, depending on your direction of travel, you have to use the crossings on Alberta's Hwy 2 south of Cardston or Hwy 89 north of St Mary in Montana.
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