Alberta Roadtrip: Part 3- Facing the Beast

This is the last post I promise about our trip, but for all the Belgian family visitors (and posterity), I feel the need to round out the rest of our trip, because the wedding was not the only thing we did in Waterton.  So warning, this sucker is photo heavy!

H and I arrived in town the day before the rest of the wedding crew, it started out a wet, so we took advantage of the alone time for a cruise around town (all 4 quaint blocks of it!), picked up some supplies.

On our trip back into the park from "the city", we saw some spectacular scenery, I just loved the way rain clouds hugged the Rockies.

We timed our outing perfectly,and as we pulled up at our hotel, the sine came out, so we put on our hiking boots and went out to see some of the park itself.

Our hike up to Bertha falls gave us a great outlook onto Waterton Lake.  We were lucky that we ran into only two other couples during the hike, because we had waaaay to much fun taking wacky pictures of ourselves the lower falls, thanks to the steep angle of the rocks....

 

Yeah, like I said, we had way to much fun!  I guess one could say that the expression about little things and little minds might apply here?!  Meh, we thought it was hilarious at the time :)

 

The day after the wedding, while I .... took it easy in the morning *cough cough*.... H went out on his own to explore some perfect male entertainment... a vintage/hotrod car show!

 

 

 

With my "easy morning", doing the trick, we met us with friends (and their two little ones) to explore the Prince Wales Hotel (one of early railway hotels), which is perched on a hill over looking the lake

 

 

 

Which housed the largest chandelier I think I have ever seen!

 

 

followed by a walk in the red rock canyon, the perfect easy walk for little legs and tired heads.  We were able to explore nature

 

and spend some quality time with close friends,

before heading back down to Waterton lake for some serious rock skipping

 

And... fishing...

 

 

And the whole day wrapped up with a trip back up to the ranch, for an open house where we had time to catch up with new and old friends, and the groom's uncle regaled us with stories from his time in Russia working with orphaned and wild grizzly bears.

 

 

The groom's uncle Charlie, is such an inspiring man, after having the opportunity to hear him speak and later watch the amazing documentary on his work there, it's made both H and I look at ourselves and grizzlies in a whole new light. 

 

The next morning was our whirlwind trip home (14 hr drive), but not before we stopped by the bison paddock, just outside the park.  As a chef, H gets to work with all kinds of ingredients, and one of the newer ones to him was Bison, so the opportunity to see "the source", was too good of an opportunity to pass up.  It seemed that our timing was perfect, as we got there just as they were waking up.  It also so happened that they were near the road so we could see then in action....

 

But then all of a sudden they were a little too up close and personal....

In front

And behind our car...

 

It seems it was time for a drink and their route took them right over the road we were driving on!  It was a bit more "action" than we had anticipated, but it was amazing to see them so up close.