264km (164 miles) S of Calgary
In the southwestern corner of the province, Waterton Lakes National Park is linked with Glacier National Park in neighboring Montana; together these two beautiful tracts of wilderness compose Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park. Once the hunting ground of the Blackfoot, Waterton Park contains superb mountain, prairie, and lake scenery and is home to abundant wildlife.
The transition from plains to mountains in Waterton and Glacier parks is abrupt: The formations that now rise above the prairie were once under the primal Pacific Ocean, but wedges of the ocean's basement rock broke along deep horizontal faults, cutting these rock layers free. The continued impact of the plate tectonics gouged these rocks out and pushed them 56km (35 miles) east over the prairies. Thus, almost 5km (3 miles) high, the rock block of Waterton Park -- an overthrust in geological terms -- is a late arrival, now sitting on top of the plains.
During the last ice age, the park was filled with glaciers, which deepened and straightened river valleys; those peaks that remained above the ice were carved into distinctive thin, finlike ridges. The park's famous lakes also date from the Ice Age; all three of the Waterton Lakes nestle in glacial basins.
