Waterton Park

Waterton Park is the townsite community inside Waterton Lakes National Park, in Alberta's southwest corner against the Montana border. The census counts about 105 year-round residents in the surrounding Improvement District; in summer the townsite swells with visitors. The setting is the famous one: this is where the prairie ends abruptly at the mountain front, so the lakes and peaks rise straight out of the grassland with no foothills in between. The park is also a UNESCO biosphere reserve and, with Glacier, the world's first international peace park, designated in 1932. Bears — black and grizzly — are a normal part of the scenery, so food-storage rules apply everywhere in town.

The Prince of Wales Hotel, the 1927 railway hotel on the bluff and a National Historic Site, presides over Upper Waterton Lake; below it the boat cruise runs the length of the lake into Montana at Goat Haunt. The hiking is among the best in the Canadian Rockies: the Bear's Hump above town, Cameron Falls at the townsite's edge, and the Crypt Lake trail — reached by boat, finished by ladder, tunnel and cable — as the signature day out. The Red Rock and Akamina parkways lead to red-walled canyons and Cameron Lake, and a plains bison herd grazes the drive-through Bison Paddock. The 2017 Kenow wildfire burned much of the park's forest, and the regrowth, wildflower flushes and changed trails are now part of the story guides tell. Boat rentals and the marina handle the gentler end of the lake for those not hiking.

The townsite's few streets hold lodges with dining rooms, cafes, an ice-cream shop and a pub — seasonal, and priced for a national park. Evenings are for the lakeshore and the stars; Waterton is an International Dark Sky Park. Wieners of Waterton, a hot-dog stand on the townsite strip, has a cult following far beyond its size. Book dinner early in July and August — the town's few dining rooms fill by six o'clock.

Stay in the townsite hotels and inns, the Prince of Wales, or the Townsite Campground, one of the few in-park campgrounds with full services. Most townsite businesses close from October to May. Everything in the townsite is walkable; the parkways and trailheads need a car, and Parks Canada shuttles cover Crypt Lake in season. Crandell Mountain Campground, up the Akamina Parkway, is the park's second front-country campground. Winter leaves a caretaker population and deep snow; most of the townsite boards up until the May long weekend.

The season is short and glorious: mid-May to early October, peaking in July and August, with the Wildflower Festival in June and Wildlife Weekend in September. Give it two to three days — the hikes deserve more than a drive-through. June's wildflower bloom is arguably the finest reason to come: more than half of Alberta's plant species grow in this one small park. September trades flowers for golden larch, elk and empty trails.

Waterton is the end of Highway 5, south of Pincher Creek, joined with Montana's Glacier National Park as the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. On a mountain road trip it pairs with the Crowsnest Pass or the Going-to-the-Sun Road across the border. The Chief Mountain border crossing, open seasonally east of the park, links Waterton directly to Glacier's east side. It closes in winter, when the park settles into its long, windy quiet.