Waterton National Park

[Pipeman]

The park is closed due to a wild fire and it has been evacuated. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/waterton-evacuation-mandatory-1.4281646

[canadafan]

Hi Pipeman,

Like you Waterton is one of our favourite places, we have been staying at Crandell on an annual basis for many years. It is a pity that there is not more information about specific areas like Crandell and the Akamina Parkway. I know they have a lot to do there (and they did great work to protect the area) It would be useful to see some aerial photos of the area effected either by helicopter or drone so that we could make some decisions about next year. One thing I do not want to do is visit to "fire view"

[Pipeman]

I found out that the buffalo from the paddock were taken out long before the fire happened. Apparently they are moved to a different area of Alberta for the winter, as I understand it. Just for info, the Waterton Springs Campground will be closed down because it will cost the Conservancy too much money to bring the campground up to specs. It would be left to go back to nature and I presume the buildings would be taken down. There is/was hope that the Alberta Govt. would take it over. Too bad because we liked staying there for a couple of weeks every time we traveled out west.

[4runnerguy]

OMG, I hadn't heard about this fire. We didn't get to Waterton on our Canada trip this year and was hoping to get there next summer. Looks like right now it's not the place to go. The most recent map showing the extent of the fire:



We encountered a lot of smoke during July on our trip but fortunately our planned route avoided most of the fire areas. The only place we had planned to go that was closed was Wells Gray PP. Don't think there was fire there but they were concerned about evacuating with only one road in and out.

Let's hope for some good snowpack this year!

[Pipeman]

Trigley, I have been following this with great interest as we have been there many times over the years. I was particularly worried about the people who run Waterton Springs Campground, where we have stayed many times. I was able to make contact with them and they told me they got out just in the nick of time. We also were wondering what happened to the buffalo in the paddock that is nearby. Being a retired city Firefighter, I'm glad the FFrs from Calgary and surrounding areas(Lethbridge, Taber, etc) did a great job protecting the hotel and the townsite. To those who fight forest fires, you have my respect and admiration for the very hard job that you do. The Park is a gem and we like going there much better than Banff and Lake Louise.

[trigley]

They saved the town site (barely) with the help of a sprinkler system they set up. Lost the Visitor centre and a few buildings plus a large part of the park was burnt. A few ranch houses outside the park as well.Click