Buffalo and Mounties

 Our next day at Crooked Creek finds us boarding a bus to take us to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site.

Entrance Sign

Yes, you read that correctly.  This is a historic site preserved by the Blackfoot peoples to commemorate and preserve the heritage of their ancestors' way of life.  This site is where annually they would come to harvest Buffalo meat, hides, bone, etc.  They used virtually everything and let nothing waste.  There's a film that portrays how the Blackfoot would follow the Buffalo herds to this area and then go through an elaborate setup to funnel the Buffalo towards a cliff that would end up stampeding them over the cliff to kill them.  At the bottom of the cliff the women would immediately start the processing of the meat and hides to carry the tribe throughout the winter.

We had an amazing guide during the tour of the facility and cliff site.  His 'americanized' name was Donohue Troy, he quipped his mother was a big movie fan and didn't quite get the order of the name correct.  Don't even ask me to pronounce or spell his native Indian name.  His parents died when he was quite young and he was raised by others in the tribe, one of which taught him the stories he shared with us.  His role in the tribe is to keep the storytelling tradition of the people so the history remains.  He was very engaging and interesting to listen to the stories he shared with our group.  What at first sounded cruel and messy, ended up being a beautiful story of survival and necessity. 

Representation of Cliff inside the facility

One of the actual cliffs used during the annual jumps

Our Blackfoot guide, Donohue Troy

At the end of our presentation, we asked one of the native girls at the entrance desk to tell us where the Blackfoot name of the people came from since it sounded so English.  She told us a couple of stories she had heard about the moniker.  The one I liked best was related to the 'white' man coming and forcing themselves into the areas.  Of course, the Indians did not like the attempt to push them out of the land so they would burn down the houses, crops and settlements then run away.  As they ran away after the fires, their feet would turn black from the burned ashes and so the 'whites' started calling them, Blackfeet.  

After this visit we were taken to a local livestock auction house where we ate a delicious lunch.  If you've never tried eating at an auction house, they are usually quite good.  We saw an interesting sign on a drink machine.  To this day, I do not know what it is talking about.  Notice the upper left adjacent to the coin insertion area says, 'No Toonies'.  Then there is further explanation on the sheet of paper attached to the machine.

Oh well, I didn't want a Dr. Pepper anyway.  So we proceeded to our next stop at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police museum and store at Fort MacLeod.  We were supposed to see the Mounted Patrol do a musical ride on horseback.  This was called off because it was too hot.  The temperature had reached 92 degrees and they said it was too hot for the horses.  Of course, this is not Texas so 92 is probably too hot for these horses.  Anyway, the museum was interesting but our guide was a young lady who would read her presentation.  We got really bored listening to that and went off to explore on our own.  After listening to Donohue Troy's stories, her presentation just didn't measure up.

Our next day was a free day to explore.  Beverly and I decided to go to a lake high up in the mountains inside the Waterton Lakes park.  We thought we might get lucky and spot some wildlife along the way or at the lake.  After a lot of twists and turns we arrived.  The scenery was beautiful but we cut our visit short due to the number of flying gnats and mosquitos around the lake itself.  

Selfie Time

Yes, still ice and snow up here in July

Next house site

On the way down, we spotted a car on the opposite side of the road and it was stopped.  Beverly was intently staring at it and its occupants to determine why they were stopped in the middle of the road, when she asked me what did I think they were looking at.  I calmly responded, 'that bear right there beside your window,' which was literally 6 feet from the car.

Oh the flurry of activity that ensued as she attempted to find the camera phone and get pictures.  As it turns out this was a mama grizzly with three cubs.  She was blondish and all three cubs were black.  Try as she might, Beverly was unable to get pictures of all four at one time.  She did however get quite a few good shots, as shown below.

Very Close

We have been spotted

And the family is close by

One of the youngsters keeping an eye out

Continuing our way back down the mountain, we went into Waterton town itself to get a bite to eat.  More wildlife awaited us.  As we got to the edge of town, another bear was spotted close to a parking lot.  This was much further away and moving away from us.  Then as we pulled into town, we spot these deer.  Including mama and her babies just wandering from place to place.  Not disturbed at all by the people and vehicles around them.

After we ate, we returned to Crooked Creek to rest before the cookout.  After the cookout we had a drivers' meeting to discuss the trip tomorrow from Waterton to West Glacier.   Come back to see what we see at West Glacier in the good 'ole USA as this is our last night in Canada.

Good food and good times

Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada

 At the drivers' meeting last night, they specifically told us they were providing us a route that is more scenic than driving down the main highway.  It definitely was more scenic as we drove south with the Rocky Mountains on our right in the distance.  The countryside was rolling and avoided larger cities but we did go through some smaller communities.  We had a surprise moment when we happened upon Longview.  We thought we might have taken a wrong turn somewhere and ended up back in Texas.  But no, this is Longview, Alberta, Canada.

Scenery with Rocky Mountains in Background

Well what do you know?  It's Longview

We did not stop in Longview as we had another stop along the route to visit the Remington Carriage Museum in Cardston, Alberta, Canada.  Check in time at Crooked Creek Campground was around 2 PM so the group had time to stop and view the museum.  Of course, a carriage ride was in store as well.  Our driver was from Texas and had been in Canada for the last 20 years or so.  Something about a horse-drawn conveyance that is very pleasant and relaxing, apart from the obvious smell of course.

Clip Clop Clip Clop

Crooked Creek Campground is located just a few miles from the entrance to Waterton Lakes.  We were pleasantly surprised at the views and ambiance in the park.  We were only there for a few days and were kept so busy with the group that we didn't have much time to relax and enjoy.  We did have a nice evening sitting out and visiting with the couples in the tour group from Massachusetts.  Then the Wagonmasters and Tailgunners had a cookout for the entire group another evening.  These are some of the views from our RV site.

Sunset changes the color of the mountains

Hard to beat these views

Our first visit to Waterton Lakes was as a group.  We went to Waterton, the town, to board the boat for a lake tour of the park.  This park is the Canada side of Glacier National Park which is in the U.S. and our next destination after leaving Canada.  We spotted a bear while on the boat but without binoculars it was impossible to see clearly or to get a good picture without telephoto lens.  The guide on the boat explained that if you are hiking, the best way to avoid surprising a bear is to make a lot of noise by talking and being in a group.  He said the bells are not any good and bear spray isn't effective either.  I personally am not willing to test his statements for voracity.

Ready to board, Prince of Wales hotel in background on cliff

During the boat ride, we actually crossed from Canada to the U.S. while on the water.  Every year, the U.S. Park Service and the Canadian equivalent get together and cut the area shown in the photos below which is the US/Canada border.  Don't have to worry about illegal border crossings here, the nearest road is over 30 miles away and there's lots of rugged terrain and bears to contend with before reaching any form of civilization again.

View of border from one side of boat

View from opposite side of boat

After entering US waters, we came to a landing that is for Canada and an adjacent US Park Ranger office and residence.  This sign below says, no entry and I for one, believe they are serious.  I wouldn't even step behind the sign cause I was skeered.  Yep, a true coward for breaking the rules.  The vistas and beauty is impossible to describe or capture on a two-dimensional image.  Here we are with Waterton Lake in the background surrounded by the mountainous terrain.

Landing on Waterton Lake for US/Canada Rangers

Entry Verboten unless with proper authorizations

Location of our next house

After eating lunch and meandering around Waterton, we boarded the bus back to the campground.  Tomorrow promises to be another adventurous day.  We are close to leaving Canada for the US but still have a couple of days to explore left.  Come back  for some more adventures in the next post.