- Hike length: 20km
- Elevation gain: 885m
- Difficulty: Hard
- Time spent with breaks: 7 hours
- Highlights: Waterfalls, tunnel, cliffs, ladder, chains, lake, ferry ride
- Recommended for kids aged 10 and above (who will listen to instructions and be aware of the dangers as there are sections, we can go only one after the other)
This is an amazing, adventurous, unique hike, 20 kms moderate to hard, 885m elevation gain, ferry ride to start of hike, thick forest with undergrowth like tropical, 3 waterfalls, few streams, narrow ledge, a ladder, a very cool tunnel, scary chain section with 600m cliff drop on one side, chains attached to rock on other side and narrow uneven rocky ledge and in the end a beautiful lake. All this to be done in a limited time to catch the last ferry back to mainland (unless ofcourse you have your own boat/kayak, canoe..). Our boys were the youngest that day to do this hike. There is a limit on number of people doing the hike in a day due to the limited capacity on the ferry taking hikers to the mountains across the Waterton Lake. There is a campground on this trail as well.
Checkpoints:
- view of waterton lake
- waterfall 1 (you can see it between the trees)
- crossing a stream
- waterfall 2, majestic view from far
- waterfall 3, view from far
- Campground
- small stream
- narrow ledge leading to the tunnel
- Ladder to climb up to the tunnel, the tunnel and climb down to narrow ledge
- Chain section (level, steep climb, gradual climb)
- small rocky section climb
- Crypt lake !
The trail has pretty steep inclines with moderate and flat sections in between. The initial part of hike is in the dense forest area. When you near the second waterfall it opens up and majority of rest of the hike is in exposed area. After the view of 3rd waterfall, you reach the campground (we couldn’t see any campers there) and then a small stream to the start of the narrow ledge section. The ledge is still wide enough to walk. The ladder to the tunnel is short and there is comfortable space for 2-3 people to stand at the start of ladder. The tunnel is pretty cool, you need to bend but can still walk (no need to crawl). The wind gushes through the tunnel which is very refreshing. We left our poles at a nook at the end of the tunnel as for the chain section we wanted to concentrate and use both of hands. Poles can be folded and kept in your backpack (some of our poles were not foldable) but we didnt want any distractions.
The chain section involves
- a level area,
- a climb up couple of steep/smooth/slanting rocks, (this is probably the toughest part)
- a few other sets of rocks – gradual climb.
Below I have the details of the trail and the journey:
Ferry ride: Take your tickets at Waterton Tour Boats: Rocky Mountain Boat Tours: Waterton Inter-Nation Shoreline Cruise Co. Check for the crypt lake shuttle schedule. In the summer months they have 8:30am and 9am shuttles. Try to get the 8:30 am one so you have ample time to cover the hike at a moderate pace and spend time at the lake. There will be queue at the ticket counter so reach there early enough to be in the front of the queue. We reached there around 8am. The evening shuttles are at 3:30pm and 5:30pm. We reached back the shore after hike around 4:30 and waited around for the 5:30pm shuttle.
Watch the short video below for the more detailed views of the trail