Kesler Lake

Thursday June 30, 2022

Thursday was a bit of a lazy day but we eventually all donned our T shirts and took some pictures. After we took pictures at the Prince of Wales I took our car down by Lake Linet to tell some stories from the old days. We noticed a crowed of people looking up on a hill and we saw a young brown bear playing around in the grass.

Princess Lisa (as compared to Mom who is Queen Lisa) has been wanting to see a bear this entire trip so we called them and she was there in no time. By the time she arrived though the bear had wandered over the top of the hill but she went running up the trail after it.

I followed after her just in case I needed to save her from the bear. By the time we got to the top of the hill the bear had wandered back and laid down on the trail to give us a show. Meanwhile a bunch of the grandkids had followed us up the  hill and it was cool for them to see it so close as well.  

We had also been seeing deer and sheep all over the park during the entire week.

In the afternoon we decided to take the grandkids out to the buffalo paddock to see some more animals.

A few years ago Lisa learned that there was a lake not far from the buffalo paddock called Kesler Lake. The story about Kesler Lake as it has been handed down through the Kesler family is that Lisa’s grandfather and his brother homesteaded Kesler Lake before world war 1 but then her grandpa had to head out to fight in the war. His brother promised to take good care of the lake while he was serving his country so off he went.

You can imagine how upset he would have been when he arrived home after the war to find that his brother had lost the property.

We knew there was no road going to the lake but since we were this close we decided to see how close we could get to it. We put Kesler Lake in google maps and followed it until the road ended.

There was a small house at the end of the road and a nice lady told us the best way to get to the Lake but that we would be hiking over another guys property but she thought the owner of that land would be unloading cattle onto the summer range and he would probably give us permission to hike to the lake.  

We drove south about a mile and caught the guy just as he was closing his gate. He was a very nice man and told us the version of the story about Kesler Lake that had been handed down through his family. In their family they had always been told that their father had won Kesler Lake either in a hose race or a card game. No wonder Arthur Kesler was so upset. I would be ticked.

Well we were there but we had two cars full of people who had not planned to hike. I suggested that one car go back with the little kids but we all decided to head out.  

Since we were all wearing shorts and some of us were in sandals it didn’t take long before the little kids all headed back and Lisa and I were left with Princess Lisa, Sydney and Hayley.    

We hiked through some very beautiful country but by the time we found the lake we were pretty cut up. I am so glad we persevered though. I imagine Queen Lisa would have given in and turned around but Princess Lisa was all upbeat and encouraging and kept us moving forward.

We were so excited when we first caught a glimpse of the lake. Even though we were confident we were headed in the righ direction you do begin to doubt yourself after some time.

When we did finally find the lake it was stunning. I would love to live on a lake like that. Have of the lake is actually in Waterton Park and Grandpa Kesler had permits to graze cattle inside the park.

This picture is where we believe the cabin stood that Grandpa and his brother had built.