Canada 33% off, limited time only!

We arrive in Waterton Lakes Townsite campground early and as good citizens of Canada they welcome us with open arms. Canadians are great that way. The national parks in Canada are different than the ones in the States. There is a little town called "The Townsite" which is just a small village of 40-50 full time residents, which swells to hundreds during the season. They have shops, restaurants, and residences that are all within the national park.

Our first experience with my newfound buying power was at a pie joint in town where pie and coffee for 2 was almost twenty bucks! NO DISCOUNT!!! This was because I used US currency. I soon figured out that if I used a credit card, I would get $1.33 Canadian dollars worth of buying power for only one dollar US. So dinner at the Trappers Grill in the Townsite (yes that's how you say it every time) was $75, but with my credit card I only paid $54 US. Now that's a deal and the food was awesome.

We also took a boat ride to Goat Haunt, an outpost US entry station. The customs officials there were a little jerky compared to the delightful Canadians everywhere else, eh. Here are some pics.

 They cut the trees down along the entire border to make a visible line between the countries.

This is the Prince Of Wales Hotel. You can see the smoke behind it. Reminds me of Arendelle Castle from the movie Frozen.

All the smoke means we need to take this trip again! Yea!!!


Earlier in the day we went kayaking on Upper Waterton Lake in our inflatable kayak. Damn thing is so hard to use. We decided to head over to Lake Cameron and rent a hard-sided kayak on a smaller lake. Caitlin fell in love with kayaking and spent the next days searching for a used one to buy. No luck.

 

Here is Caitlin out on the lake by herself.

Later near dusk we drove down Red Rock Canyon looking for bears, and bears is what we found. Two of them to be exact. One so close it almost touched my truck on the passenger side. Caitlin was so excited. Though not our first bears sighting, every bear encounter is awesome.

 Crummy pics, but this is what I got.