Annual winter trip to Waterton Park

We used St. Mary Lake in Glacier Park as a warmup for Waterton

The Carway border crossing dominated by Chief Mountain

Kilmorey Lodge at foot of Mount Crandell

Katie and Josie on Cameron Lake, the highlight of our outdoors adventures

If it's February it means Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada's sister park to our Glacier National Park.

We go for the back country skiing and snow shoeing and relaxation to get away from our winter doldrums.

Our go-to spot is the Kilmorey Lodge on the shores of the lake immediately beneath striped Mount Crandell.

But, the highlight of our recent trips has been a ski on Cameron  Lake, where Waterton meets Glacier and Montana, Alberta and British Columbia come together.

It is more than a mile to the end of the lake's giant headwall at the base of Glacier's Mount Custer.

You don't want to get too close.  There might be an avalanche waiting for you if you do.  We went to a point on the lake just shy of a mile.

We skied right up the middle of the frozen lake in a strong wind, but enjoyed ourselves the entire way.

We started our ski trip on Akamina Highway that's plowed and groomed for skiing and snow shoeing to the lake, almost two miles away.   There are groomers for skate and classic skiing and snow shoeing. 

Both sides of the highway are lined with high, snow-covered peaks, with the Cameron Lake headwall within view.

It's a tad scary to ski the lake, but we've seen Parks Canada snowmobiles on it, so we figured it was relatively safe.

Gong back there's a groomed back country trail below the highway that hugs the creek and passes Akamina Lake, offering a wilder experience than the road.

Despite high winds and cold temperatures, there were many other recreationists out  for the views and some exercise. 

The town of Waterton, a lively tourist hub during the summer, was a boarded up ghost town except for three hotels and two restaurants.  The Kilmorey has been rebuilt after a fire in the past 10 years and has a restaurant and bar and a warm atmosphere.

The trip seemed tentative because of the weather.

It was 29 degrees below zero in Great Falls when we woke up and until we hit the Cut Bank area in Glacier, temperatures were as cold as 25 below.  There, they miraculously jumped to plus 25!!!

We did make a stop at St. Mary's in Glacier for a walk along the lake before heading to Waterton.

I find it hard to grasp how Glacier has no services as does Waterton in a similar setting and environment.

It was fun to be in Canada as President Trump was blustering about making that country the 51st state, and then watching the Canadian hockey team beat USA in Four Nations Finals.  I love Canada and hate to see it bullied. 

Because of ground blizzards we chose to follow a secondary highway all the way from Cardston to Milk River a few miles north of the U.S. border.  Usually we travel view Highway 89, but were warned away as ground blizzards, particularly along the east front of the Rockies, were predicted. 

Kings Hill to Silvercrest

We topped off the week by skiing from Kings Hill Pass to the Silvercrest cross country ski area, a distance of 4 miles via the downhill ski area, O'Brien Creek, Divide Road and back country trails.

Despite high winds, the sun broke out and we had a delightful, if short and quick trip.