First Peoples Buffalo Jump State Park…

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….? 😁

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