Third Time's the Charm - Crypt Lake

Our third attempt at hiking Crypt Lake Trail in Waterton finally happened this past weekend.

Our first attempt was in June of 2013-- it was too snowy, so we hiked to Goat Lake instead. Our second attempt was interrupted by Jeff's Jeep dying on the way to Waterton... We hiked Bertha Lake instead.

But this time... This time nothing could stop us from hiking Crypt Lake!

Our hiking group, originally five back in 2013-- myself, Tom, Ashley, Jeff and Jill had expanded to eight. Now including Jeff's girlfriend, Julie, Jill's boyfriend, Chintan, and Ashley's friend, Megan. And if I may say so, they were an excellent and enthusiastic group of hikers! We all drove up to Mountain View outside of Waterton National Park on Friday night after work to spend the night at Ashley's parent's cabin-- some of us meeting for the first time on our arrival.

Saturday morning started with a trip to the Waterton townsite to buy tickets on the water shuttle to Crypt Landing-- the trailhead for the hike. For a whopping $21/person (return-trip) the shuttle takes you for a 15 minute ride across the lake. Normally there are a 9:00am and 10:00am shuttle. On this particular day there ended up being 3-4 for boats, because they hike was so popular!

Waterton Lake in the morning.

The Crypt Lake trail is about 18km round trip, with 2300ft of elevation gain. Along the way, there were stunning vistas, waterfalls aplenty, and brightly coloured wildflowers sprouting along the paths. The trail was not overly challenging-- properly somewhere between moderate-strenuous. Strenuous only because of the overall length of the trail. The trail itself was a relatively gentle grade-- at least compared with some of the other hikes we've done!


Initially, about 120 people disembark from the boat at the same time. As a result, the first few kilometers on the trail you felt like an ant in a never-ending line of hikers. But eventually the groups pulled apart according to their skill level, and we continued up the trail on our own.

Wildflowers below a waterfall.

Emerging from the treeline.

The highlight of the hike really came near the end midway point of the hike, where you climb up a steel ladder, squeeze through a tunnel in the mountain, and come out the other end holding on to cables secured into the rock face.

Tunnel entrance via steel ladder.

Julie climbing up the steel ladder.

Hiking group at the mouth of the tunnel.

Jill and I holding on to cables in the rock face.

When we emerge out the other side of the tunnel and cables, it was just a short jaunt to our final destination-- Crypt Lake!

Crypt Lake Marker.

We joined the other hundreds of hikers relaxing on the shores of Crypt Lake for a laid back lunch. Several parties had brought small dogs with them, so we watched a small dachshund wiggling around nervously, and a spaniel obsessive compulsively chasing a stick thrown out in the lake by anyone he could convince to throw the stick.

Crypt Lake.

After lunch we all headed down to a large chunk of ice on the shore of the lake. There was a shelf of ice below that water that give the ice a strange glowing blue colour-- much like you'd imagine an iceberg to look like. Of course, a snowball fight ensued, before we headed back to collect our bags and begin the trek back to the boat pick-up. As we were collecting out bags, part of the ice shelf collapsed into the water. If anyone had been standing on it when it happened (which was where Tom had been standing minutes before), they would have slid right into the water for an unwanted dip in the glacier-fed lake. Dodged a bullet on that one!

Crypt Lake shore ice.

We convinced a small girl to take a group photo for us (which she did, while remaining 100% silent, even when we thanked her profusely).

Group shot!

It's amazing how you manage to miss views, depending on the direction you're hiking in. As we descended back into the family, we were treated to another beautiful view full of blue skies and lush vegetation. With a hiking group so large, we saw absolutely no wildlife, except for a few errant squirrels.

We took an offshoot trail into Hell Roaring Canyon on our way back to the boat landing. It was a bit steeper than the regular trail, and took a little longer than the main trail, but we made it back in plenty of time to catch the boat home. 

Tom and I waiting for the boat home.

 Crypt Lake was a great hike! Well worth the year long wait, and two prior attempts!

P.S. We got a new camera. You like? Some of the group photos are from Jeff and Megan's cameras, but the rest are ours!