Day 10, August 22

Day 10, August 22

Location: Waterton National Park

Miles driven: 50

Click map to enlarge

I set the alarm for 5:40, but ended up deciding to sleep in as I had been getting short rest every night and hadn’t been able to get any naps in. I’m sure fighting those mosquitoes last night didn’t help matters, either. It was mostly overcast around sunrise, but it looked like there was some color to the west, though I had a hill right in front of me, so it was tough to say if it was any more intense lower in the sky. I was hoping I didn’t miss a good picture opportunity at Lower Waterton Lake, so I kept telling myself it didn’t happen! This weighed on my mind a bit for a number of days after still hoping I didn’t waste an opportunity. I ended up sleeping in and eventually left camp at 10:00.

I went up the Red Rock Canyon Parkway and walked the short loop at the canyon and took a couple of snaps. From here I headed over to the parking lot at Lower Waterton Lake at the end of town where I stayed all day. I had lunch while I was looking over maps and trying to figure out where I wanted to be for the next day or two and visualizing mountain images from the topo lines on my maps. I was merely relaxing as I was waiting around for sunset. It began to rain off and on. I heated up a cup of soup which really hit the spot as the temperature had cooled considerably in the afternoon.

At 5:42, the sun had found its way through and lit up a rainbow on the hillside on the other side of the lake, and shortly afterwards I walked down to the lake shore with my camera equipment. Sunset began to look promising as the clouds continued to slowly break up. I took some pictures of the grand scene to the south just for documentation purposes as the light wasn’t anything special at this point. A flock of seagulls (not the band) flocked to an area of water around the point to the right. One of them stayed perched on the shore for quite awhile modeling for me as I took a number of pictures of it. Later, while having the camera set up pointing again to the grand landscape to the south, a couple walked by and the lady asked what I was taking a picture of. I couldn’t believe it! A number of humorous and sarcastic responses filled my head, but I somehow refrained from communicating them! Perhaps she just used the comment as a conversation starter. She also asked if sunset was going to be good. I told them what had to happen to make it colorful and that there was a lot of potential due to the way the clouds seemed to be clearing out.

There was a bit of color at sunset, but it was very close to being a rather dramatic scene. After shooting sunset at the lake, I tried to call my sister to wish my niece a happy birthday as she was turning two today. Their phone was busy, so I’d have to call them later. I headed the 20 minutes back to camp where I stayed last night and arrived around 9:35. The mosquito situation was far better tonight. Maybe I had killed them all last night!

10:00 AM — Camped just outside of Waterton along Belly Creek