What Is Crypt Lake And Where Is It?
Crypt Lake is in the Rocky Mountains of Northern Montana and Southern Alberta, Canada. It is an alpine lake that is often frozen into the early summer months. The lake itself and the surrounding mountains make for a beautiful mountain scene. The hike up to Crypt Lake is a long strenuous one that might be considered thrilling or at least adventurous!
Crypt Lake is a tough spot to get to. Though it is right on the US/Canadian border, the only way to access it is from the Canadian side. If you’re in the US and visiting Glacier National park and want to go hike Crypt Lake you’ll need to drive across the Chief Mountain Border crossing. That will take you into Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada. Once you get into Waterton Lakes you’ll need to head down to the boat dock and buy a ticket for the boat to take you to the Crypt Lake trailhead.
What Is It Like To Travel To And Photograph Crypt Lake At Waterton Lakes National Park?
If you want to go to Crypt Lake, first you’ll need to get all the way out there. Crypt Lake is located along the border of the US and Canadian border between Montana and Alberta. If you will go there from the US and plan to fly in, chances are you’ll want to fly into the Kalispell Airport in Montana. If you’ll be flying into Canada, you’ll probably fly into the Calgary Airport. The drive from either airport to Waterton Lakes National Park will take a few hours.
If you are coming from the US, chances are any visit to Waterton Lakes National Park will be part of a trip to Glacier National Park. The two parks are part of the “International Peace Park” that covers parts or northern Montana and Southern Alberta. If you’ll be visiting Glacier National Park and want to visit Waterton Lakes, you’ll want to stay somewhere on the east side of Glacier if you plan to drive to Waterton and back in the same day. Alternatively you may plan to spend a night or more in Waterton and split you time between Canada and the United States on your trip.
If you plan to hike to Crypt Lake at Waterton Lakes you’ll need to plan to get an early start. The hike to Crypt Lake is a long and pretty strenuous one and you MUST take a boat from the Waterton town site to get to the trailhead. The boats heading out to the Crypt Lake trailhead generally leave at 8:30am or 9:00am and return from the trailhead around 5:00pm. Be sure to check the Waterton Cruise website to check on the latest schedules for boat trips for Crypt Lake and elsewhere in Waterton Lakes National Park. The boat trip trip to Goat Haunt is another awesome cruise but that is completely separate from Crypt Lake.
When you hike to Crypt Lake you’ll be embarking on a 10.7 mile round trip hike that climbs 2,300 feet of about 700 meters. Due to the boat schedule you’ll generally have about 8 hours to do the full hike. It is quite a climb. There are chain sections. Some sections of the trail have significant exposure and you will have to crawl or hike through a natural rock tunnel on the side of a cliff.
In order to prepare for the Crypt Lake hike you’ll want to be in pretty good shape, You’ll want to carry some water with you but there is generally water you can filter along the way and of course at the lake. You’ll be able to save a fair amount of weight by carrying a water filter as opposed to carrying all of your water with you. Be sure to bring some snacks and rain gear if there is any chance of rain on the day you plan to do the hike.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo Of Crypt Lake?
The biggest challenge to getting a great photo of Crypt Lake is just getting there and hauling your camera gear up a vertical climb of around 2,300 feet over a 10+ mile round trip hike. If you have flexibility in your schedule you’ll definitely want to pick a day when there is a zero perfect chance of rain and the winds will be fairly calm. Waterton Lakes is famous for wicked rain storms.
There can be days on end with almost constant sustained winds of 30 or even 50 mph. Look for a weather forecast with fairly warm temperatures, calm winds, and a very low chance of precipitation. Those conditions are not only good for photos but for a safe passage along this hike that is considered by some to be among the “scariest” hikes in western North America due to the exposure and chain sections along it.
Once you get up to Crypt Lake, it is a beautiful scene. If the winds are calm, the mountains surrounding the lake will probably reflect in the calm waters. There are not a ton of different perspectives from which to photograph Crypt Lake. If you are a relatively fast hiker you should have enough time to walk around the entire lake, see and photograph it from whatever perspective you like.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing Crypt Lake?
When you hike to Crypt Lake you will be there during daylight hours. There is no chance of being there at sunset or sunrise because there are no overnight excursions available. If you miss return boat after the hike you might get stuck near the boat pickup spot overnight but that will be down by the edge of Waterton Lake and not by Crypt Lake.
Since you won’t be there in low light conditions, a tripod will not be necessary to get sharp wall art quality photos. I always prefer to take and shoot with a tripod but you can do just fine without one.
Any camera will do. If you want better quality photos that you can use to make larger prints then you’ll probably want to take a DSLR or a mirrorless camera. The photo gear you take will depend somewhat on how much flexibility you want when photographing the area and how much weight you are comfortable hauling when you climb 2,300 feet over 10+ miles.
You’ll probably want to have fairly wide angle lenses. If you have anything as wide as 17mm or so, that would be a good lens to take. A standard 24-105mm lens would be a good all round choice. There will be some distant scenes for which a 200mm lens might come in handy if you feel like carrying the extra weight.
The Crypt Lake area is a spot that can lend itself to taking panoramic photos. Since 4×6 aspect ratio photos can certainly do it justice. This will again come down to how much photo gear you want to haul all the way up there. When I hiked it, I took four lenses with me, the longest and heaviest being the Canon 70-200mm along with an Induro tripod, two camera bodies and a Nodal Ninja panoramic head. That was A LOT of gear. I only took a few panoramic shots and could have been happy without the heavy panoramic equipment.
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