Hiking the Golden Trail to the United States - Waterton Lakeshore Trail

In summer, Canadian and US park interpreters lead day hikes from Waterton townsite, along the lake, into Glacier National Park with a return on a boat. This service is no longer being offered for this season so we decided to walk both ways. The trailhead and first mile of the hike are the same as the hike we took yesterday to Bertha Lake, but shortly after the viewpoint the Lakeshore trail heads left (south) to the U.S.

It is definitely fall and the trail is often covered in golden leaves that have fallen from the aspen trees.

A sign at the beginning of this segment of the trail cautions horseback riders to "Walk Your Horse".   I think its because on horseback you might  hit you head against the slab of stone.

We didn't stop at the viewpoint today but we did take a picture from the trail at an elevated spot. This is looking south, down Waterton Lake, into Glacier National Park in the U.S.

There were several times that the trail brought us down to the shore. Looking south and...

north, back towards Waterton townsite.

We hiked as far as the border and here you can see the markers for the border and the dividing line of the 49th parallel that marks the border looking east and...

looking west.

Frederick with one foot in the U.S. and one in Canada.

We decided to eat our lunch on the beach in the U.S. with...

this as our lunch view.

Frederick was impressed with this boulder along the side of the trail that had rolled off the mountainside and found its angle of repose.

Hike statistics:

Length - 8.61 miles

Elevation gain - 330 feet (185 floors on the Fitbit)

Duration - 4 hours, 22 minutes