on the road: Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump

The scenery down through southern BC and into Alberta, over Crowsnest Pass was beautiful, a little less dramatic that what we saw further north but equally appealing.

Loved the color of this crop, whatever it is.

Rivers follow the roads all along the route.

Coal trains are still a part of the landscape.

We went through some ski resorts and coal towns, through Frank, which experienced “the most destructive landslide in the history of the world”. The devastation there was just unbelievable as huge rocks were all over the sides of the highway. A gigantic chunk of Turtle Mountain sheared off , the town was buried and the debris covered over a mile in each direction. No pictures were taken here as there was no place for us to park Maxine.

We passed hundreds of wind farms and a very agricultural part of Alberta before coming to Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump. It was 4 pm and Boo wasn’t allowed in the area so Jim went in that night, we got a campsite nearby, and I went in the next day.

This was just a small section of the wind farms.

Beauty everywhere

Head Smashed in…… is the largest, oldest and best preserved buffalo jump in the North American Plains. At the base of a large sandstone cliff is a vast graveyard of thousands of years worth of bison bones. The Jump was an ingenious hunting technique of Plains natives from 5,000-10,000 years ago. There is one in the white cliffs area of Boulder, but it is not accessible to the public, so we knew very little about it. Plains natives would organize a very complex communal event occasionally when conditions were right. Many different tribes would gather at a site like this, make tools, prepare driving lanes with cairns and branches for the buffalo to move through, set up camp, and after ceremonial events which honored the buffalo would drive them on foot (no horses yet) towards the cliff and to their deaths. The interpretive center itself is well worth the trip. It is a beautiful architectural achievement, built into the natural topography of the area, and does an excellent job of explaining the buffalo jump and the history of the Blackfoot Nation.

The Interpretive Center

The view from the buffalo jump itself

Poor buffalo! There are many bones under all that grass.
The name comes from a man who decided to go under the
cliff and watch the buffalo fall in front of him. He got
crushed under the falling buffalo. Poor Head Smashed In!

We discovered a sweet campsite down by the Oldman River, which has a long and rich history in the Blackfoot tradition. The natives often camped at the river, preparing for buffalo hunts and later, whisky traders arrived and set up business nearby. This was also the site of a major disaster last year, when the Oldman dam broke and flooded the area.