Pictures from Banff

Here are some pictures from our days in Banff National Park.

Up and down the border

We arrived in the town of Waterton in the early afternoon, with just 20 minutes to spare before the boat departed to take you on a tour of Lake Waterton.  The hamlet of Waterton sits on a peninsula of the lake, with the Prince of Wales overlooking the gathering of buildings and homes from several dozen feet high above.  There’s not much to the town. An advertisement for the “one and only nightclub” in Waterton gave its address as simply its name and “Main Street.” No need for a number here – just Main Street.

So while Marc made a quick lunch out of some sliced turkey, avocado, and fresh bread, I ran ahead and bought tickets to board the Miss Waterton. The boat left the marina right on time and our guide didn’t disappoint us in living up to the entertaining reputation the tours have.

“Please make special not of the location of the life preservers onboard this vessel. Transit Canada also requires that we have a fire ax onboard. I don’t know why you need a fire ax on a plastic boat, but I suppose it couldn’t hurt.”

So along the way I snapped a few pictures of the surrounding mountains, a glacier, and the international border between these two great nations.  An interesting thing is that the treaty signed between the two countries spells out that the border must remain clear of any obstruction along the parallel that divides the two countries. So the line that you see in the pictures extends all the way through to the Pacific Ocean.

“This is what we call an anti-drowning lake,” he told us. “It’s impossible for anyone to drown to death in this lake because you’ll freeze to death first.”

It was nice to be treated to the Canadian sarcasm we had grown to love through our appreciation of stand-up, improve, and sketchy comedy.

You take the boat down south along the shores of Lake Waterton, which is seven miles long.  The boat docks at the southernmost point, which happens to be in Montana. You can take a short walk, but interestingly enough, you’re met by two US border patrol agents.  They seemed like nice guys and were taking all of the jokes in stride (e.g. “How did ya get this assignment?”).

So enjoy some of the pictures from the boat trip on Lake Waterton.