Waterton Lakes National Park is quite extensive. On the map, the trail to Bertha Lake looked short. We started hiking about 9:30 am. The first section is to lower Bertha Falls is ranked moderate on the map. It was pretty flat with gradual ascent. We stopped to use the Seek app to identify a variety of plants, most of them some type of berries. We were searching for Saskatoons, although none were yet ripe. We also saw not yet ripe strawberries, buffalo berries, snowberries, thimbleberries, and twinberry honeysuckle.
Since the hike to the lower falls went so smoothly, we decided to continue to the upper falls. However, this section was much steeper, ranked difficult on the map. We stopped various times for me to take photos as well as a few water and snack stops.
Finally we made it all the way to the top! There was a simple wooden bridge that led the final bit to Bertha Lake. It was so idyllic to sit in front of this clear, beautiful mountain lake ringed by mountains. Across the lake, we could see a water cascading all the way from the top of Bertha Peak. Truly an extraordinary experience!
Hiking back down took a bit less time. However, hikers coming up started reporting a black bear with a cub near the entrance. By the time we made it back down, the bears were thankfully long gone. We gobbled down some pizza to replenish after all that climbing. Garmin recorded 2200 feet in elevation gain on this hike!
Made it back in time to the hotel for map meeting and then to head up to the very fancy Prince of Wales hotel overlooking the lakes. It looks like an ornate European, almost gingerbread style building. Since it was built in 1927, it has no air conditioning; and, they've never even installed window units. We had a very fancy dinner that ended with haskap cheesecake. Delicious!
A nice change of pace from bicycling. Dad
ReplyDeleteThat’s a pretty dainty waterfall! Love the hike! Perfect weather. Did you manage to find a single ripe berry at least which you ate? 😋 ~ bc
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