Month: January 2023

With another blip up in weather it was a good time to take advantage of our proximity to the border with another foray into Montana.

We had been looking at the tourist maps of things close by that might make good day trips for visitors.

First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park boasts being the largest Buffalo Jump in America…. It’s right by Great Falls

On previous trips we had spotted a greasy spoon type independent breakfast spot…. The Golden Harvest off the highway en route to Great Falls….. There’s no greater adventure than a sketchy looking breakfast joint….. The menu looked promising….. Home made bread… 4 kinds…. Never mind Gold Harvest….this could be a gold strike….!!!

Hopes and dreams laid waste on the rocks….. Not only was it not open when Google promised…. It had changed its name…..another COVID casualty we suspect since its reviews as a family restaurant had been stellar…..

The choice we had now was to sit in parking lot for an hour ’til opening…. Or decant to Great Falls and find another spot…. So the Black Bear Cafe it was….I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of it….must’ve been too hungry by that point…..

Breakfast was better than decent…!! Since we were now in Great Falls it was time to pick up a few American groceries ( I do love Albertsons…….all kind of flavours of Tostitos that you can’t get in Canada and excellent coupons in my Albertsons app……. 😁) Next stop…. First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park….

This Park feels like it is in the middle of nowhere…. the access road winds through the small town of Ulm, and then after driving across a stretch of prairie…..

The Rangers in the visitor centre were very nice and helpful…….but it seems to be the way of it in State and National Parks….There was no one else in parking lot…….not surprising…..it was a warmer day than we have been having…..but still chilly….and veeeeeery windy…!!!

I made my purchase of park badges for my collection and we took the little tour through the visitor centre.

The Taft loop is the 5km trail around the park and across the top of the cliff. Did I mention it was windy…….and muddy……….but very pretty.

Montana has that big sky thing created by the vastness of the prairies and the circle of mountains waaaaay off in the distance…..

Its not a particularly difficult hike…….but it is hard work walking into the wind…. (we found a few fungi on the path…..to my delight…!!)

Its another one of those frequent stop hikes. Not to catch your breath as much as to gasp a little at the view….

At the top there’s a quite spectacular view of the surrounding countryside…..the mountains on the horizon…..

…….and the prairie dogs…….!!!! These guys are black tailed prairie dogs….not gophers…!!!

At the top of the loop there is a big parking lot……this is a place you can cheat a little and drive up to the viewpoint….if you want to……

From the parking area…as you walk forward….you don’t really see the cliff ’til you are right there……..I guess that’s why it worked so well for harvesting buffalo….

It’s quite an impressive drop…..

The ‘accumulation’ of stuff at the bottom of the cliff is apparently the remains of 5,000 years of buffalo…!!!

If you are interested in more information about this hunt method…click here

I always felt an incredible sense of history walking the stone steps in Edinburgh…the same ones that people had been climbing for 500 years…….well this place is so much more. As you stand on the cliff you can imagine thousands of bison grazing the plains……this place has the feel of thousands of years…..

If you look closely at this next picture, and the two above….the little building you see in the middle is the visitor centre….

Just in front of the visitor centre is this structure …which is the Pow Wow Arbor built by the local tribe around 15 years ago for the annual Pow Wow at the site.

There are many activities they run from wildlife watching to night sky events……

It’s a very beautiful place…..so open, you just want to gaze out and breathe deep…..a good one to come back to with visitors….who’s coming out to see….? 😁

Extra Pix

Thoroughly enjoying our dose of Emily, a trip to the Rockies was an essential part of the itinerary. It’s her favourite part of the world after all. The weather network promised us a sunny day above freezing, and to add to the perfection of the day Bronagh and her friend, Andy, were available to join us.

Its a 90 minute drive for us to Waterton. Chief Mountain is part of the Waterton skyline……and we can see it from the house…..!!! This means we can see it all the way there and for some people we were not closing in on it fast enough.

As they were driving down from Calgary, and we were driving straight west to Waterton…..we met them there. Bronagh said when they arrived at the sign declaring ‘proceed at your own risk’, that had to be the right way to find us. The trail was snow covered…but we had high hopes of hiking at least far enough in to get some views.

It was quite lovely as we headed out from the trailhead following a path made by a snowmobile that looked close enough to where the trail should be.

About a kilometer in the snowmobile tracks stopped and we were off to the left of the trail….and the snow was becoming a little more difficult to traverse.

There was absolutely no sign of the trail though we bravely continued searching for a bit.

As we disappeared up to the hips in the snow…..much hilarity ensued.

There were parts where…in order to avoid disappearing into the snow, crawling was a better option…….shades of Parker Loop in the Okanagan last year.….. but with arms disappearing as well as legs.

A lot of the time we couldn’t continue simply because we were all laughing too hard…..

It was time to bail on the trail and head back. (Crawl back…!!!)

It was bloomin’ hard going……!!!

….but eventually we made it back to firmer ground…….

It was kind of a perfect day for this sort of adventure…… warm enough that we were not cold, but cold enough that the snow was not melting and soaking us as we struggled……I think we managed about 1.6 kilometeres in total….but it was fun….!!!!

There is viewpoint of Waterton on the road back……it was a little icy at the viewpoint (but, thanks Parks Canada, the washrooms were not locked….!!!)

….and the view of Waterton is……well….absolutely magnificent….

Since we were right here by the gate, we took a drive in to the park…..

…..to get a few more captures of those most majestic peaks….

A grand day out indeed…!!!

Extra Pix

(All of the pictures are clickable if you wish a clearer view)

(link to Emily comes to visit part 1)

November blasted us with some brutal storms and unbelievable cold. Snow drifts in the driveway, power outages and a bit of ‘living in a snowglobe” experience. The upside of blizzard conditions in high winds…..the trailer is bright and shiny……snowbath..!!

Finally the polar vortex shifted and the weather has become quite pleasant…….but then after weeks of below -30 Celsius anything above freezing becomes quite joyful……..and we are finding that here in Alberta….or at least here in the southern part……the sun does like to shine….!!!

…and the wildlife likes to visit…..

I think the whole of Canada reveled in a white Christmas this year, and so very beautiful it was too…….

With the warmer weather and our Emily visiting from Ontario, a trip back to our ‘local’ (Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park ) seemed like a plan…!!!

Writing-on-Stone…….the badlands landscape in miniature, with less snow than our last visit making the Hoodoo trail less perilous. We lucked out with a beautiful blue sky day. It was wonderful to strap on the boots again and be out in the fresh air, especially a chance to share our neighbourhood with Emily.

The Hoodoo trail has a series of numbered viewpoints. There is a guide which tells the history and geology of the place……..but there were none in the box on this visit…….I should pick up a couple of extras for our next visitors…!!!

The Milk River frozen and snow covered.

There were no snakes this time either….!!!!

The views are hard to beat…..especially on a day like this one….

The light was quite a bit different from our visit in the fall…..giving us a very different view of some of the pictographs.

….and that battle scene is just ….well it’s something…!!!!

With so few other people around every time we come here……it’s a very peaceful and reflective place………

It’s a pleasure to be back outside again………

Such a lovely place…..