Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park / Waterton Lakes National Park

... More >

Reserve in 1979.

To the Indians the Waterton-Glacier area was "the land of the shining mountains"; to the American journalist and naturalist George Bird Grinnell it was "the crown of the continent". The magnificent high mountain scenery with precipitous rock faces, more than four dozen glaciers and over 200 lakes is to a large extent untapped wilderness traversed by a network of just under 1500 km (930 mi.) of hiking trails and mountain tracks. A number of strikingly scenic roads, generally closed in winter, make this mountain fastness accessible to anyone touring by car. There are excursions by boat on the larger lakes such as Waterton Lake and McDonald Lake.

In the shape of their central mountain chain consisting of the Lewis and Livingston Ranges the two National Parks comprise a distinctly alpine section of the Rockies. The north-west/south-east orientated continental watershed forms the western border of the Waterton Lakes National Park and splits the Glacier National Park in two. From the east, the mountains appear like a huge wall rising abruptly out of the Great Plains. On the western side on the other hand they slope up more gradually.

The landscape here was fashioned by dramatic movement of the earth's crust over a period stretching from 200 million to 40 million years ago. During the formation of this segment of the Rocky Mountains, relatively hard Palaeozoic sedimentaries were displaced eastwards some 70 km (43 mi.) and upward at an inclination of some 10°, coming in the process to overlie more recent chalk strata. Geologists believe that the resulting mountains originally reached heights of about 5000 m (16,400 ft). Mt Cleveland (3190 m (10,469 ft)) is the highest mountain in the Park today.

During the last glacial periods a vast ice sheet covered the mountain range, which was shaped by slow-moving glaciers. Ice Age glaciation was at its most severe during the Wisconsin icing about 12,000 years ago, when only the highest peaks protruded.

The principal features of the landscape are U-shaped valleys with high vertical rock faces, lateral hanging valleys from which countless waterfalls cascade into the main valley below, narrow sharp-edged ridges and crests, and more than 200 smallish karst lakes in addition to larger lakes in the terminal basins. All are testimony to the heavy glaciation occurring during the Pleistocene period. The 50 or so glaciers in the Park at the present time are not however relics of the great continental ice sheets, having formed more recently and after the intervening warm period. In contrast to the usual type of valley glacier they are mostly wide and relatively short. They are found on slopes exposed to the north-east wind, which piles the snow up in great accumulations below the normal snow-line.

The prevailing winds are southerlies and south-westerlies, bringing with them moist air from the Pacific. The resulting precipitation mainly affects the western parts of the Park; on the eastern side the winds are felt as a "chinook" (a warm, dry wind occurring in the lee of mountains). Thanks to the chinook, winter in Waterton is normally milder than elsewhere in Alberta. Not only do these warm winds speedily melt any snow lying in the valleys, they also swiftly dispel the incursions of cold air from the Arctic which hold the rest of the province in their wintry grip. The onset of a strong chinook in January 1966 saw the temperature near Pincher Creek rise by 21°C (70°F) in only four minutes, and though the average winter minimum temperature at Waterton Lake is 232°C (226°F), the average maximum temperature is as high as 10°C (50°F). While in mild winters the lake only freezes for a few days, in severe ones it can be covered by a thick sheet of ice from January to April, making it possible to skate the 61/2 km (4 mi.) to the lake-end in Montana.

Summers are generally pleasantly warm and dry but unfortunately also short (mid-June to the end of August). In the relatively windless months of July and August maximum daily temperatures range between 23°C (73°F) and 35°C (95°F).

Precipitation varies considerably within the Park. The prairie section near the eastern entrance averages only 760 mm (30 in.); below the ridge of mountains at Cameron Lake on the other hand, twice that amount is recorded (1520 mm (60 in.)). As a result, while hemlock spruce, fir and red cedar forests (Lake McDonald Valley) clothe the valleys and slopes to the west of the watershed and thrive in the wetter, warmer Pacific air, on the drier eastern side the tree-line is considerably lower and the sub-alpine fir cover much less dense. Where to the east the mountains give way to prairie there are some open stands of aspen.

In the short snowfree summer months the mountain meadows of the Arctic sub-alpine vegetation zone are transformed into a gloriously colourful sea of wild flowers, vast in number and some being rare. Bear-grass (Xerophyllum tenax) is typical of the species found on the mountain slopes, a cyclical flowering plant which in many years carpets great tracts with its creamy-white petals on tall stalks and in other years is nowhere to be seen.

Botanists divide the Park into six bio-climatic zones. First comes a wet zone of many lakes and areas of swamp, populated by sedges, birch and willow (e.g. Maskinonge Lake and the beaver ponds at Blakiston Creek) and offering food and shelter to beaver, musk rat, mink, duck, geese and also moose. Second is a narrow prairie zone - the furthest western extremity of the Canadian Great Plains - intruding into the Park from the east and providing a habitat for coyote and bison (since 1952 the Park has once again come to support a small herd of bison in the special Bison Paddock near the entrance on Hwy. 5). Next there is a parkland zone bordering the prairie, with open aspen stands and groves (e.g. Belly River, Vimy Peak Trail), followed by the "montane zone" of mountain valleys and lower slopes, where the pine and Douglas fir forests are the haunt of red deer, cougar and black bear. The fifth, sub-alpine, zone extends to the tree-line (Cameron Lake, Summit Lake Trail); here spruce, Englemann fir, larch and silver pine flourish along with bear-grass, gentian and - among other fauna - grizzly bears. Finally comes the alpine zone (above the tree-line; dwarf-pine) merging into alpine meadows, the home of marmot, Rocky Mountain goats and bighorn sheep (which make their way down to the valleys in the autumn).

234 different species of bird, 57 species of mammal and 17 species of fish have been recorded in the Park, emphasising its importance as a refuge for increasingly threatened wildlife. In autumn the lakes are a stopping place for countless migratory birds. None of the three types of snake found in the Park is poisonous. Since the 1980s there has again been a pack of grey wolves roaming the Park. These keep mainly to the more remote valleys of the North Fork Flathead River in the north-west together with the adjacent parts of British Columbia. Unlike bears, wolves pose no danger to visitors hiking in the Park.

Far more likely to be seen are bighorn sheep, white Rocky Mountain goats, wapiti, moose, whitetail and mule deer, beaver and marmot. One of the largest attractions though is the little herd of bison grazing its prairie pasture. With luck it is also possible to catch a glimpse of the white-headed osprey, sadly now facing extinction. In autumn kokanee salmon congregate to spawn in lower McDonald Creek.