Aug 16, 2024 - Flew to Calgary

Since Calgary is close to Waterton NP in Canada and the Waterton NP is adjacent to the Glacier NP, we decided to fly to Calgary and rent car to drive to both NPs.  

Flight to Calgary is uneventful, however, the Avis Rental counter in Calgary Airport had some major issues to get the cars ready for rent.  We had to wait for about 90 minutes to get our car.  With the issues they had, they gave us a free upgrade to BMW X3.  It turned out to be a good thing to have this upgrade while we drove in these 2 NPs later.

Originally, we planned to check in the hotel first and then drive to Red Rock Canyon to visit this beautiful geographic wonderland. However, with the car rental delay, we did not have enough time to do it.

The Prince of Wales Hotel in Waterton NP is a major landmark in this NP and it is located at the most beautiful spot of the whole NP.  After we checked in and got into our room, then we realized that it has lost a lot of their glamour throughout the years.  The room was small and lacking of upgrades.  The whole hotel still has the tremendous location, however, its maintenance has a lot to be desired.  It has no landscaping at all.  Painting on the exterior is fading and the grasses are in sad condition.  However, their lobby still has the grand old glamour look and has been attracted a lot of visitors (non-customers) to browsing around.  

The hotel situates at the tip of Waterton Lake looking over the clear and beautiful lake and surround mountains.  Again a lot of tourist just came to view the wonderful scene from the back of the hotel.  We had a lake view room with picture perfect view of the whole lake, mountains and the nearby Waterton town. We did not stay in the room for long, we just went out to scope out the hotel and to enjoy the surround views.  

The we drove to Waterton town to have dinner at Waterton Pizza as some readers’ recommendation on Tripadvisor.  Their pizza and nachos and we had good time there. It felt strange to order nachos in pizza restaurant, however, the recommendation was not bad and they do have very nice and tasteful nachos.

After dinner, we stalked around the town visiting some of the souvenir shops, however, we could not find anything worthwhile to purchase.