Exploring Waterton Lakes National Park

After a long drive, we had just settled into our first campsite in Canada. Waterton Lakes National Park was gorgeous, and we found out all of the trails in this park were dog friendly. This was great news to us, since we hadn’t been able to hike on any trails in Glacier National Park. So, with a few hours of daylight left, we decided to head out and explore some of the beautiful mountains around us.

We decided on a trail to Bertha Falls since it was a shorter hike and the trailhead was right by our campground. It was so refreshing to stretch our legs and breathe in the mountain air. The path was lined with various wildflowers and as we climbed higher the surrounded views of the lakes below and the mountains around us only became more terrific.

After about an hour or so of hiking up the steady incline, we made it to the falls. Bertha Falls is a waterfall that cascades over interesting rock formations before continuing on down the river. There were many places along the trail that offered paths down to the river with little wading holes to soak your feet in, and rocks warmed by the sun to enjoy a nice picnic or a snooze.

If we had more time we would have loved to continue up the trail to Bertha Lake, but with the sun starting to fall behind the mountains we knew we better head back to our campsite and made our way down the mountain side and back to our little home on wheels. Showers were calling our names at this point, and it felt wonderful to take a high-pressured, hot water shower. It felt like we had just visited a spa. Refreshed and clean we ended our first evening in Canada gazing out of our skylights to the mountains that stood like watchful guardians around us until we fell asleep.

This was our last day in the mountains for a while. We had spent the majority of our trip so far surrounded by nature, but now we were heading to Calgary, Alberta. It would be our first experience exploring an urban environment in the van. We definitely had some apprehensions; would we even like being in the city with the van? I had gotten used to the quiet serenity of waking up and falling asleep to the sounds of nature, and the laid-back lifestyle our days took on. The thought of being in a big city that rushed around usually excited me, but living in a van in that environment seemed exhausting and stressful. Plus, there were the issues of parking, safety, traffic, smaller roads, and the confusion that comes with visiting a city for the first time.

It was definitely going to be a change of pace. But, that’s just another part of the adventure- experiencing different places and people and lifestyles, and enjoying the differences or similarities. So, the next morning we packed up camp, left Waterton, and made our way to Calgary with our fingers-crossed that the Wander Wagon wouldn’t break down while driving in traffic or in the heart of downtown.