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Glacier NP actually reaches into Canada, where it is known as Waterton Lakes NP. We knew this, but didn’t think we’d have a chance to see that part of the park since you need a passport to get back into the US if you leave. We’d applied for the kids’ passports in May, but they say it can take 6-8 weeks to process them, so we thought they’d arrive after we left on our trip.
We lucked out though, and the passports arrived less than a week before we hit the road. I quickly checked our itinerary and changed it to include a quick trip to Canada and made reservations to stay at Townsite campground in Waterton Lakes. We only spent one night, but we were able to see a couple waterfalls during our stay (more on those in another post). This was the first campground we stayed at during this trip that had full water, sewer, and electric hookups. This was also the most we paid for a night’s stay, so we made sure to enjoy charging all our devices and running the air conditioner 🙂
Canada is celebrating its 150th anniversary and all national parks are free this year, even if you’re not Canadian. We thought that was super nice of them. Their facilities are also nice- at least the ones we saw. They all looked new and in good repair, or were being repaired. Their buildings are a nice pale aqua/teal color rather than the drab brown seen most often at US national parks.
We want to return, but we will have to do so at a different time of year. The aspen seed was really bad at Waterton Lakes (there’s where we learned it’s aspen seed, not cottonwood fluff), and my allergic reaction worsened in the brief period of time we were there. It’s unfortunate since it’s a beautiful area, but I was not tempted to stretch out our visit. We had to hit the road and find clear air.
