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Upper Waterton Lake with Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton Lakes National Park, by Gorgo – Photo was taken by the author,

Top 10 Unbelievable Facts about Waterton Lakes National Park

Waterton Lakes National Park is situated in southern Alberta, Canada, bordering Montana’s Glacier National Park. It is known for its chain of lakes, which include the large Upper and Middle Waterton lakes,s, flanked by the Rocky Mountains. The Red Rock Parkway crosses the prairie to the small Red Rock Canyon. Bison graze near the Bison Paddock Loop Road. In Waterton village, a pathway offers close-up views of Cameron Falls.

 The Waterton Lakes National Park is operated by Parks Canada. Waterton is open all year, but the main tourist season is during July and August. The only commercial facilities available within the park are located at the Waterton Park townsite. This park ranges in elevation from 1,290 meters (4,232 ft) at the townsite to 2,910 m (9,547 ft) at  Mount Blakiston. It offers many scenic trails, including  Crypt Lake trails. Waterton Lakes National Park has over 402,542 visitors. 

The park was the subject of a short film in 2011’s  National parks project that was directed by Peter Lynch and scored by Cadence Weapon, Laura Barret, and Mark Hamilton.

The following are the top 10 unbelievable facts about Waterton Lakes National Park, that you should consider knowing before visiting the place.

1. It is one of Alberta’s windiest place

Waterton is a small piece of the international Crown of the Continent ecosystem. The climate is strongly influenced by the prevailing Pacific maritime weather systems. The warm, moist air flows over the coast mountains and Columbia plague before spilling across the narrowest point in the Rocky mountain chain. Therefore its climate is best considered mild, moist, and windy and its weather is usually variable and quick to change.

2. It has some of the oldest sedimentary rocks exposed in the Rocky mountains

The rock layers are primarily eroded sediments that are laid down particle by particle at the bottom of an ancient sea that existed about 1,500 million years ago. The evidence is provided by fossilized ripple marks and salt crystal casts. Therefore the rock layer makes up the park’s geological foundation.

3. There is a Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park

The panorama was taken from Prince of Wales hotel looking south, Public Domain,

The Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park was created in 1932. The purpose of creating the peace Park was to commemorate the peace, goodwill, and cooperation between Canada and the U.S.A.

 It was dedicated to world peace on 18 June 1932 by Sir  Charles Arthur Mander on behalf of  Rotary International whose members from the Alberta and Montana chapters lobbied for the formation of the park. The Peace Park was the first of its nature in the world and was intended to promote goodwill between nations and underscore the international nature of the protection of wilderness.

It is now a symbol and a working example of positive Cooperation in heritage management across boundaries.

4. It became Canada’s second biosphere reserve

Waterton became the second biosphere reserve in Canada. The biosphere reserves are created to achieve a better understanding of the relationship between humans and the natural environment. It was also the first Canadian national park that took part in the UNESCO program.

It was therefore designated as a world biosphere reserve in 1979, thus preserving mountains, prairie, lakes, and freshwater wetlands ecosystems. Habitats represented in the park’s range include prairie grasslands, aspen grove forests,    alpine tundra /high meadows, lower subalpine forests, and deciduous and coniferous forests.

5. The park experienced the Kenow Wildfire

In 2017 the Waterton Lakes National Park experienced a severe wildfire which is commonly referred to as the Kenow Wildfire. The wildfire is likely to influence the Park for generations since it had a significant impact on the built infrastructure in the park.
The wildfire burned approximately 35,000hectare along with 19,33 hectares in Waterton Lake National Park.

6. It has two National historic site

Waterton Lakes National Park has two national historic sites located within its boundaries: they include the Prince of Wales Hotel which was designated in 1993 and the First Oil Well in Western Canada. It was designated in 1968.

7. Upper Waterton Lake is the deepest lake

Upper Waterton Lake with Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton Lakes National Park, by Gorgo – Photo was taken by the author,

The most distinguishing features of the Waterton lake chain include the upper, middle, and lower Waterton lakes and also the maskinonge wetlands. These lakes make up almost two-thirds of the total water surface area in the park
Therefore, the upper Waterton Lake is the deepest in the Canadian Rockies at 148m deepest.

8. It is the only Canadian national park that preserves foothills of fescue grassland

Cinnamon-coloured Black Bear eating dandelions, in Akamina Parkway. By Traveler100 – Own work,

Waterton is the only Canadian national park where the foothills parkland Ecoregion is represented. They occur in a limited geographic area that occupies a narrow band along the eastern edge of the foothill. That is from Calgary South to Waterton and into part of Glacier national park and the Black Indian Reservation.

It spans four ecoregions, foothills, parklands, montane, subalpine, and alpine. They comprise approximately 10 percent of the Park and occupy a narrow band along the eastern edge of the foothills of Alberta from Calgary to Waterton and into parts of the United States. The animals that inhabit the national park include wolverines, bighorn sheep, bald eagle, moose, mountain goats, foxes, grizzly bears, black bears, etc., and many bird species that migrate through the park including the bald eagles, Canadian geese, orange-crowned warbler and MacGillivray’s warblers.

9. It was named by Lt.Thomas Blakiston

Waterton was named by a member of the famous Palliser Expedition Lt.Thomas Blakiston. He was one of the earliest explorers in the area. He named it after 19th-century British naturalist Charles Waterton.

10. Traditional Blackfoot name for Waterton lakes

View of Vimy Peak, By Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK – Waterton,

The traditional Blackfoot name for Waterton Lakes is paahtómahksikimi which means the inner sacred lake within the mountains. Waterton Lakes National Park is part of the traditional territory and a place of significance for the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot) and other Indigenous peoples.