Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

That really is the name of this place; I could not make that one up. This will be the last blog about our Saturday adventure. I saved this one for last, because it is the hardest to put into words. All day long we laughed every time we talked about going to Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. I mean really, who would name a UNESCO World Heritage Site that and why? We arrived at the museum about 45 minutes before it was scheduled to close. When we walked into this beautifully designed building nestled into the cliff side and began reading about the site, it was overwhelmingly sad for me. Basically, this is a place where over 6,000 years, tens-of-thousands of buffalo were run off the cliffs so that the Plains people, as they are called, could eat and use all of the buffalo parts for various things. I get that in this cold, hard to survive climate, everyone has to eat but it was still a little overwhelming. When the site was excavated, 12 meters of buffalo bones were unearthed. That is over 39 feet or 4 stories! I think that if there were any buffalo left it would not be so sad, but the white men who came through on the trains completely wiped out the remaining buffalo. The scenery was beautiful, but I don't think that I will ever look at a sandstone cliff the same way again.

The legend is that a young boy wanted to see the many buffalo that were being run off the cliffs to their deaths. He was standing under an overhang as he watched but when his people came to butcher the buffalo, they found the boy with his skull smashed in. What an awful story.

Cameron Creek Rapids

On the way to Cameron Lake, we noticed an interpretive sign near a small mock up of an oil well. On the way back down we stopped to check it out. It marked the spot where the first producing oil well in Canada was drilled although it never really produced much. The reason it was drilled in the first place was adventurers noticed bears in the area had oil rubbed on their fur. The assumption is the oil kept the insects away. Don't ask me how they figured this all out, but they eventually found oil seeping out of rocks in the area. After reading the information on the oil well, we walked a little bit down the creek next to the oil well site. It was about 100 meters or so where we found this rapid. It turned out to be one of the unplanned treasures of the day.

Pictured with us is Carlton Jensen, Peter's friend from work who traveled with us yesterday. He was a great sport and was even willing to meet us at 6:00a.m.to start this journey. You have to love that sense of adventure. After we got back home, about 7:00 p.m., we met up at one of the local watering holes called Firewater for dinner. We enjoyed the company, the food, and the music. Firewater is across the street from both Peter and Carlton's condo buildings. It was a very enjoyable day.

Cameron Lake and Falls

Cameron Lake is about a 10 mile drive from Waterton Lake and higher in elevation. Most of the time we were there, it was windy, cool, spitting rain, and the sun refused to shine. When you look across Cameron Lake from the vantage point of where we took the picture, you are looking at Montana.

The Cameron Lake Falls were beautiful and very assessable with a nice fenced path. The speed and volume of the water was amazing. Behind the fence we noticed a large mule deer feeding. It was camouflaged well and the only way we initially saw it was because of its movement.

Poutine

While we were enjoying the view of the lake and trying to warm up a little, we ordered some coffee and tea in the lounge of The Prince of Wales Lodge. The lounge, with its floor to ceiling windows, was a great respite from the winds where we could still enjoy the view of the lake. We noticed that poutine was on the menu so we decided to give it a try. Poutine is a Canadian comfort food that is a combination of french fries, fresh cheese curd, and brown gravy. How can you go wrong when you start with crispy french fries? To our surprise, Carlton, Peter and I enjoyed our Canadian snack. The cheese curd had a mild mozzarella flavor and texture. We decided that poutine was the Canadian version of Texas chili cheese fries that we would probably order again.

Waterton Lakes National Park of Canada

Our next stop of the morning was about 2 ½ hours to the south of Calgary, only a few miles from the United States Montana border, Waterton Lakes National Park (Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park). The first thing that catches your eye after you soak in the majesty of Upper Waterton Lake is an old historic brown and beige building called The Prince of Wales Lodge. It is a wooden structure that sits proudly up on a rocky ledge overlooking the lakes and at first glance reminds you of a large Swiss chalet. When you enter this grand old building, you know that you are not in a Swiss chalet; you are in a remnant of the grand old hotels of Canada that were influenced by ever present British heritage. Once you walk into the lobby, your eyes are instantly drawn to the plate glass windows on the lake side of the building. It isn’t until later that you notice the three leveled wrought iron chandelier that hangs over a majority of the lobby. The view from the lobby makes you wonder why you are so blessed to be able to view one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I won’t even try to describe the beauty of the lake. The pictures will have to speak for themselves even though I will tell you that due to the clouds and the limits of our little point and shoot camera you can’t even begin to capture the true beauty of the lake.

Outside the lodge you are immediately taken back by the 50 plus mile per hour winds. The air blowing off of the lake was amazingly cold which is easy to understand when you see the mountains on the far side of the lake with the snow still on the higher peaks. Add the winds to the cool temperature and if you are like I am, you are almost immediately ready to retreat back to the shelter of the Prince of Wales Lodge lobby where by the way, they offer coffee, tea, and even high tea at the appropriate hour. If you are like Peter with some of the salty North Sea in your veins, you embrace that feeling.

Calgary Police at Tim Horton's! It is not what you might be thinking!!!

This morning Peter, Carlton Jensen, a friend of Peters, and I had an amazing day sight seeing in southern Alberta. The first stop was Tim Horton's. Tim Horton was a great Canadian hockey player and he now has a chain of coffee/donut/sandwich shops that are everywhere. Since we were on our way by 6:00ish a.m., not much was open but Tim Horton's and since it is a treat anyway, we were happy to stop in and get our morning coffee and Tim bits. Tim bits are what they call donut holes. We saw a Calgary police car drive by and we kind of laughed and commented about the fact that they had not stopped at Tim Horton's and how Calgary police must be different than United States police because they did not stop. Well...it wasn't long before they did stop and come in for a delicious cup of Tim Horton's coffee. They were kind enough to let me take a picture of them so that I could add it to the blog. They were very polite when I asked if I could take there picture and they told me to have a great day. That we did.

Canada Day - Evening

The joke is on us. I had hoped to capture the beautiful Canada Day fireworks in a picture to share with you all. We planned the entire day around staying up until 10:45 to watch the Canada Day fireworks downtown. You all know that is a stretch for me since I am usually asleep by 9:00. Since the patio has a great view of downtown, we strategically places our chairs so that we had a perfect view, or so we thought. We are really spoiled because we thought the fireworks in Calgary for Canada Day would be like the fireworks in Houston for the 4th of July. We were very wrong. All we saw from the patio was an orange glow and a cloud of white smoke. We faintly heard some fireworks but we could see nothing. The buildings blocked our view of everything. We were bummed but kind of laughed to ourselves. I am not sure about everything being bigger in Texas but the fireworks displays sure seem to be. Enjoy the 4th of July fireworks for us this year!