Grasslands SK to Waterton Lakes National Park AB (Alberta)

Waterton Lake

We slipped out of our site in Grasslands as quietly as possible about 5:20 (7:20 EDT) this morning. The early start wasn't really planned, but we both woke up right at dawn (4:30) and decided to hit the road, as we had a fairly long drive ahead of us today. It was 0C (32F) outside but comfy in the van.

On our way out we encountered the same bison (we think) that we had captured in our headlights the evening before last:

He didn't seem really pleased to see us so early. :))

It was a beautiful morning for a drive. Cool, little wind, the sun mostly at our backs. 

Later in the morning we passed a number of ponds that seemed on the way to becoming salt flats. There's a layer of an alkali of some kind just under the surface of a lot of the land out here. The water absorbs some of the alkali, and as the water evaporates it leaves these white salts:

This pond has dried up already

This one is on its way

It's interesting to see how dry it's getting as we move West. After seeing all the water in Manitoba and Northern Ontario, it's strange to see so much active irrigation already, some in Saskatchewan and lots more as we got west of Lethbridge AB.

As we got close to Waterton, the mountains started to appear:

Westward Ho

There's Snow in them thar hills! 

We had booked a site in the Town camp area at Waterton Lakes Park. It seems that's the only camping area open here right now. On the way in to the town, the old Prince of Wales hotel is still operating:

As we got into town there was a small welcoming parade:

After we finally found the campground (boy things have changed here since I-don't-know-how-many-years-ago) we got our site and set up. Here's some views from our site:

And of course from the walkway along Waterton Lake: