As mentioned before, the weather forecast was not quite correct when it was predicting sunshine for last week. However, the rain cleared quite quickly and we were still able to hike up Bears Hump in the evening. As there were few people hiking up we used the bear bell to let any bear know that we were coming. Fortunately the bell isn’t a tourist trap, which attracts bears, but seems to work because we haven’t seen a single one of them.

Right between the middle and the upper Waterton Lake lies the picture perfect Prince of Wales Hotel, where you can stay for only $240 per night. However we still decided to stick to campgrounds and do other cool stuff for free, like some awesome hiking in the area.

The next day was a perfect day for a day hike and we chose to do the Carthew Alderson Trail, which leads through a dense forest to the Alderson Lake close by the tree line. From there the trail continues to climb even higher into alpine terrain. Being out of the forest we had to fight the wind really hard, sometimes combined with rain but never a lot.

Close to the Carthew Lakes we also encountered some snow fields and a lonesome bighorn sheep, which was enjoying the tourist free time up there. The trail is one of the most popular hikes in the area, but on the whole trail we only met about 20-30 people, which is nothing compared to some of the hikes I’ve done in New Zealand last year.

At the ridge we were the only ones as far as the eye could see and we took in the awesome landscape in the light of the evening sun. Since we had started quite late it was nine by the time we were back at the car. But the adventure was far from being over, because we had booked a backcountry campsite for the night and still had to walk there for about half an hour…