Date: July 15, 1998 Starting Mileage: 11977.7 Starting Location: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada Ending Mileage: 12131.5 Ending Location: Fort Macleod, Alberta, Canada Total Mileage: 153.8 (9053.8) Log:
Day 61
Everyone was up bright and early as today was "THE DAY." After many long weeks of travel and waiting, we would visit "Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump." |
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We followed Rte 3 south from Medicine Hat across the last of the plains until we reached the foothills of the Canadian Rockies at Fort Macleod. The first outpost of the RCMP, it seemed youthful compared to the eons of history contained within the buffalo jump site. |
The kids were hooked into following the trail of hoofprints that led through the breathtaking interpretive center. The site was developed with a sensitive eye toward maintaining the environment and natural beauty of the area as well as recognizing the continuing spiritual significance to the First Nation peoples. ( In the center, Sam found an exhibit of bones. The cliff was used for Buffalo jumping for over 5000 years so the piles of Buffalo bones that were found at the site reached 10 meters high - over 30 feet for Americans. ) |
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Designated a World Historical Site, the care taken with design and presentation was evident in all aspects of the center. Sam grinned from ear to ear for the majority of our time there. (Here the kids are standing in front of the cliff where the Buffalo Jump existed.) The kids were even more impressed when our campground ( 4 km down the road) provided them with a view of the jump from their bunkbed to watch as they went to sleep. |