Waterton, Bears, Wild Flowers etc.

Today was a beautiful day in Waterton. I drove up to Cameron Lake and found it almost completely melted with just a few stubborn “icebergs” remaining.

I saw the obligatory black beer on the way up and even stopped my car in the middle of the road like a tourist and took a few pictures.

The recent monsoon (in cooperation with some rare warm weather) is proudly presenting super sized versions of Cameron Falls and Upper Waterton Lake, which is full to the brim.

I finally decided that today I wasn’t just going to visit all the same places and drive the same roads. (Yeah, this was after I’d already been to Cameron Lake, Cameron Falls, and The Prince of Wales.) I parked my car and started walking, looking for roads, lanes and alleys that I’d never been down before. It is amazing how much more there is to see when you walk down a street rather than drive it. There is so much more detail to be discovered. Most of all I guess I wanted to get a closer look at some of the cabins there. Many of the newer ones seem like they came straight from any modern suburban subdivision of your choosing. They just seem out of place and I am unable to think of them as cabins. I guess that these must be what all the people out east refer to as “cottages”. Just take your average house - and plop it out somewhere that has no more than ONE broadband internet service provider and/or where FedEx packages are delivered in an unmarked minivan and brought to your door by a four year old ‘cause “mommy can’t leave my new sister Emma in the van by herself” - and it becomes a cottage. I guess for a house to be a considered to be a cabin mountains must of course be involved and there must be real wood of some kind and in significant quantity visible on the exterior. Speaking of cabins…

You now know what I think of some of the newer ones in Waterton. Then of course there are a lot of really old ones that have clearly been neglected and look as though they would surely fall over if the wind did ever happen to change direction. Strike two.

Thankfully there are those that still retain their old cozy charm and character. There are quite a few in fact. I love the old fashioned windows and the log cabin style. Of course the importance of a nicely treed yard shouldn't be underestimated. I like how many of them have names. I remember visiting Waterton as a kid and wondering what was up with the names on the cabins thing. Now a lot older and only slightly wiser I do think it would be fun to have a place with a name rather than just an address to get away to.

Sadly, now it seems so many of them have also grown a satellite dish. If I were to ever have a cabin I always imagined having no TV, only a real wood burning fireplace and a well stocked bookshelf full of old hard cover novels like Robinson Crusoe and the Prisoner of Azkaban. In fact now that I think about it, considering the severely limited space and therefore opportunity to own a cabin in Waterton I think anyone caught watching American Idol, The Bachelor or any version of CSI in a cabin there should be evicted immediately and the spot given to a proper book worm who would be better able to appreciate the gift of nature that is Waterton. (Survivor would be allowed since it is set in the wilderness.) Anyway…

I took a stroll down some of the roads less traveled in Waterton today. I have always thought it would be nice to spend a day in a cozy little cabin with a good book and a nice fire as the rain fell and the wind blew outside. No phones, no TV and no internet. I thought so again today.

In conclusion, these are four out of thousands of these little flowers (whose name I do not know) that were blooming beside the lane that runs behind the Northland Lodge. They seemed so happy to be found and to have their photo taken as they had been sure that no one would ever notice them among so many and so far off the beaten path. I promised them that at least four or five other people would see their photo too and I noticed them stretch out their petals just a bit wider as I took their picture. I think I heard them singing as I walked away.