Red Rock Canyon, Blakiston Falls, and Bear's Hump Trail - Thursday, June 23, 2022

With our plans made in Jell-o, we gave up hiking to Lineham Falls and Forum Falls today. At their high elevation, some of the roads to the trailheads, and the upper portions of the trails still have snow. We had enough snow on the Crypt Lake Trail! 

Instead, we are going to do Red Rock Canyon, Blakiston Falls, and hike to the viewpoint of Waterton Lake and the surrounding Rockies on Bear's Hump Trail. These three places will be easier to do than the two hikes we had planned. The other falls' hikes would have been more like the Crypt Lake Trail, I think.

After entering the park entrance gate, we took the first road to the left, Red Rock Parkway. The drive to Red Rock Canyon is 14k and we saw a whole new set of mountains! 

Blakiston Creek alongside Red Rock
Parkway.

Galwey Mountain (7,799').

Wildflowers.

Invasive Dame's Rocket 
(Hesperis matronalis).

Leafy spurge, non-native.

Bob is looking at Mt. Blakiston (9,547'), 
the highest point in Waterton Lakes.

While Bob was looking at mountains, I was photographing wildflowers...again.

Old Man's Whiskers or Prairie Smoke
(Geum triflorum).

Annual lupine (Lupinus pusillus).

When we got to Red Rock Canyon, we parked in the lower lot. Very few cars were there. As we walked the trail up the Red Rock Canyon, we saw how full the upper lot was. I guess people didn't realize how close the lower lot was!

As we walked along Red Rock Canyon, we read the signs. One of the first we saw was "Molten Rock." Here it is:

The black rock on the middle right is
the hard, dark band of basalt.

We walked up the right side of Red Rock Canyon. Normally, you can go quite a way. However, there is construction from the upper parking lot going upstream, so we were only able to do the lower part of the canyon. 

Red Rock Canyon in Waterton-Glacier
International Peace Park.

Red Rock Creek in Red Rock Canyon --
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

Meadow buttercup 
(Ranunculus acris).

When we got to the upper parking lot, we crossed the bridge and walked back down the other side of the canyon. The photos below are from the upper parking lot bridge looking upstream (where we couldn't go). The trail was fenced off just to the right of Bob.

Bob at Red Rock Canyon in Waterton-
Glacier International Peace Park.

I am at Red Rock Canyon in
Waterton-Glacier International
Peace Park.

From Red Rock Canyon, we zipped onto the trail to Blakiston Falls. We entered The Twilight Zone, er, um, I mean the Bear Grass zone!

Devastation from the 2017
wildfire.

.

Devastation from the 2017
wildfire.

Beargrass in bloom.

Beargrass is so showy!

The forest is studded with beargrass!

Beargrass is striking in a 
burned forest.

I love beargrass! Can you tell?

The Blakiston Falls hike was pretty easy. There was a muddy stretch that could be bypassed in the trees.

Blakiston Falls with modern new
viewpoints since the 2017 fire.

Gunnison's Mariposa Lily.

Bob is on the boardwalk on the right
in a lime green marathon shirt.

Payette penstemon
(Penstemon payettensis).

Blakiston Falls.

Close-up of the
viewpoint of Blakiston Falls.

The new, intricate stairs and
viewpoint at Blakiston Falls.

Bob with a view upriver
from Blakiston Falls.

I am a happy lady at the top of
Blakiston Falls.

Bob also loves being within the 
sound of a raging waterfall.

Looks like some kind of beetle or wasp
and a light blue fritillary/butterfly.

The Eastern Tailed-Blue is in this range, but it has a small "tail" on each of its wings which this definitely does not. Maybe a Ceraunus blue??

Ceraunus blue (Hemiargus
ceraunus) or Eastern Tailed-blue 
(Cupido comyntus)???

Gunnison's Mariposa Lily
(Calochortus gunnisonii).

An ephemeral waterfall
coming off the snowfield.

So, it's exciting to see a bunch of cars pulled over on the side of the road and people out taking photos. As we drove back to the main part of Waterton Park on the Red Rock Parkway, the road was blocked in both directions. Here's why. A mama black bear and two cubs were out foraging! This is our first bear sighting on this trip. They looked really healthy and all the sow cared about was eating. She barely noticed anyone was there. We enjoyed watching them.

Black bear sow and cub.

These two black bear cubs are cute!

Okay, I got carried away taking photos. We continued along the Red Rock Parkway and I should not have put my camera away. Bob spotted a doe and fawn right next to the road. Next, Bob spotted a big coyote loping along in a field. Today was a good wildlife day!

When we did our boat ride across Crypt Lake yesterday, our narrator raved about the view of Upper Waterton Lake, the mountains, and Waterton Townsite from the Bear's Hump Trail viewpoint. So, today, we hiked to the Bear's Hump Trail viewpoint. 

Aaack! That was one tough mother of a trail. It was up and up and up and up. The trail was paved part of the way and had stairs, rock steps, some small gravel in parts which was a bit treacherous if you slid on it. 

I stopped to rest a lot. There were wooden benches along the way, but not enough. 

When we got close to the viewpoint, people on the way down warned us about the gale-force winds. They told Bob he better remove his baseball cap. Bob made a comment that if he didn't remove it, it would probably end up in Manitoba! They weren't kidding. 

As we crested the hill where the viewpoint was, wind blasted us in the face. I'm glad my hat was secured under my chin.

No chin strap, no hat!

The view of Upper Waterton Lake.

"I'm King of the World."

Looking down at Waterton
Townsite Campground from Bear's
Hump Trail viewpoint.

Upper Waterton Lake from Bear's
Hump Trail viewpoint

The mountains surrounding Upper
Waterton Lake.

"Hi, everybody!"

The video below is Bob in the wind.

We spent about 20 minutes at the viewpoint before heading down. That's when things really got tough for my knees, thighs, and calves. I was happy I took my poles up the hill because the steepness coming down really did a number on my lower body!

Look at this rock wall on the left
of the trail.

Looking down at the Prince of 
Wales Hotel. I zoomed in on it.

The Prince of Wales Hotel (not
zoomed in).

I had to stop about as much on the way down as we did on the way up. My knees and calves hurt quite a bit. 

By the time we got down, I was famished (and sore, and whiny). We headed to Waterton Township for lunch. We ate at Zum's Restaurant. I had an excellent burger with a side salad. Mmm.

Then we went back to Cameron Falls to hike the short side trail to the top of the falls. Again, even though the trail was short, it was steep. My legs and knees protested, but I got up there. 

A lookout at the top of
Cameron Falls in Waterton.

Here's Cameron Falls from the front.

And here's Cameron Falls from the top looking down...

There was a much flatter way to return to the car. So, even though it was longer, we went back that way.

On the drive back to the 5th wheel, we again encountered cars stopped in the road. This time, we saw female bighorn sheep. There were a lot of them. I counted about 15 next to the road. We drove up into the employee parking lot to turn around and I counted at least 15 more in amongst the cars. (Our narrator on the boat cruise said his wife parks in that lot and the bighorn sheep go into the parking lot to lick salt off the cars. Unfortunately, their horns scratch the paint.)

Female bighorn sheep.

The sheep are shedding their winter
coats, so they look ratty-tatty.

Oops, I caught one peeing.

We continued our drive back to Cardston, Alberta. Yet,again, cars were stopped alongside the road blocking traffic in both directions. People were out of their cars with cameras but we never did see what they were taking photos of. Oh, well.

The only other stop we made was to take photos of some sculptures in Leavitt, Alberta. They were all on one person's property.

Bald eagle sculptures.

This bald eagle has a fish in its talons.

Jumping horse sculptures.

An angry grizzly bear
sculpture.

A beautiful yard.

When we got back to the RV park, Bob took a nap. Later, he went out on a bike ride.

I consider this another very active day in our travels. I was completely exhausted again! Maybe we'll have a rain day tomorrow and I can rest! I believe it's in the forecast.

TravelBug out.