LETHBRIDGE, ALTA. -- Just when southern Albertans figured it was time to bust out the tank tops, cargo shorts and summer tires, Mother Nature threw a southern Alberta-style curveball into everyone's long weekend game plans.
With temperatures reaching 25C just last weekend, Waterton Lakes National Park was scattered with visitors from across the province looking to take advantage of the park's numerous hiking trails. There were even handfuls of people jumping into the lake for a quick dip to cool off.
May long weekend will look a whole lot different, and some visitors don't even seem too disappointed.
"It's so nice. The view and the sights are all white. It's winter in May and it's so nice," said one camper spending the weekend in the park with her family.
"We're Albertans so we're used to it. This snow is not new to us, every winter we go out and enjoy the weather so we're fine," said another camper.
Waterton's Townsite Campground had roughly 40 campers show up on Thursday and they're expecting roughly 80 more to roll in by Friday evening bringing the campground to 50 per cent capacity despite the latest dump of snow.
"It's very, very difficult to get into the campground for most of the summer. It's a very busy place and it's full just about all summer long so, people take advantage when they can," said the park's visitor experience manager Locke Marshall.
With the pandemic lingering on some other popular tourist destinations, like Banff, are asking the public to stay away in an effort to reduce the spread of COVID-19. But there's a much different message from officials in Waterton.
"We want you to come, but we want you to be careful. We want you to be safe. As far as the town goes, we are making sure that we're going over and above right now to ensure that we all have our safety protocols in place," said vice-president of the Waterton Park Chamber of Commerce Shameer Suleman.
"We want you to know that if you come, we'll welcome you with open arms, we've been waiting for you, but please bring your masks and please bring your hand sanitizer."
Roughly 457,000 people visited the park in 2019-20 and officials say they expect things to be even busier this year.
"Right from January through to now, every month has been about double what we had last year. So, it's a very, very, busy place," said Marshall.
"We're asking people to think about that, plan ahead and come prepared. Please know what the rules are from Alberta Health Services. I guess what I would caution people is don't come expecting it not to be busy. It's going to be busy."
Local business owners in Waterton are looking forward to seeing the park flooded with visitors.
With the Akamina Parkway reopening, the new visitor centre nearing completion and the new splash park almost done, there's a real buzz around the park for what's expected to be a fruitful summer.
