Waterton & Glacier National Parks

Glacier National Park and Waterton National Park are actually one in the same except that the USA & Canadian border split them. Most of the park is in Montana with the small northern part of the park across the border in Alberta. We had planned to visit Glacier next May when Simon finished up with PWC but when Mum, Kaiden & I visited in June & the main road was still closed due to snow up on the pass. I called Simon & said "if you want to see Glacier & Waterton, we had better plan a trip for this Summer." And that is what we did. Although we didn't really know if we were able to go because Simon has been so busy at work but 2 days before we were due to leave he got the OK from work and we headed off on the Saturday. We drove to Butte Montana the 1st night & arrived at Glacier early afternoon on the Sunday. We camped in the park next to one of the many lakes which was just beautiful. Simon & Kaiden took advantage of the lake at the end of each day & went for a swim but I was just happy to wet the feet & watch the boys. One the first evening the boys were swimming we had a visit from a deer who come down to the edge of the trees checked us out then walked into our camp ground before heading off into the bush agian. How cool is that!

The park is really beautiful. We went on several hikes which was great fun. The 1st one we did was the same one that we did with Mum in June. It was interesting to see how the water level had changed in that short amount of time. Because there was still so much snow around when we were there in June there was obviously more water flowing in the creeks & waterfalls but none the less it was just gorgeous. We headed off fairly early in the morning which was great to be on the trails with hardly anyone around, anyone but the animals that is. Shortly after heading off we rounded a bend in the trail & literally came face to face with a dear. We all just stood there & stared at each other until it decided to head off into the trees.

Later that day on another hike we came across several mountain goats. That was exciting because we hadn't seen any of them in our travels so far. I think Kaiden counted 7 in all. So that was brilliant.

Just when we were feeling pretty happy with our wild life spotting we were in the northern part of Glacier when we stumbled across (in the car) 2 Grizzly Bears munching away by the side of the road. They were a safe distance away so we jumped out of the car to take a better look. They were completely oblivious to our presence (thank goodness) as they went about eating their breaky. Brilliant!! While we were watching them, Simon noticed 2 other bears wandering along the edge of the lake. So that made is 4. Awesome!!

The two Brothers Bears chomping away.

We packed up camp & headed into Canada to continue our adventure . . . . . . . .


Ninja Kaiden

While we were in our hotel in Calgary, Kaiden thought he'd better get in some training! He takes his . . . . his . . . . Kaiden Ninja ways very seriously! Check out his moves!!