Canada Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, June 6, 2013

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Another beautiful day in paradise! Our morning exercise consisted of an hour's hike up and down Bear's Hump, which provides a panoramic view of the whole Waterton Lakes area. At 6:30 am we had it all to ourselves - O, Canada! The climb is a steep ascent over railroad-tie steps placed by someone who had very long legs, I think, but the reward is definitely worth the brief effort.

Another breakfast buffet back at the hotel, a quick packing job, and we were off to see a buffalo herd just outside the park. Perhaps it was a bad idea to admire the majestic bulls and the cute little calves immediately before our next stop, the Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a World Heritage Site built into a cliff over which the Native Americans drove buffaloes to their death. Surprisingly, the name does not come from what happened to the buffaloes but rather from the fate of a curious boy who tried to watch from the bottom of the cliff. Anyhow, this is a really cool place, well worth a visit. An introductory film tells the whole story of how the hunt took place, and it involved much more than just stampeding the buffaloes. You can walk out to the cliff top, see dioramas and original artifacts, and even eat some buffalo stew or burgers for lunch.

We left about 2 pm and had a long drive to Banff, arriving about 5:45. It's always an impressive sight to cross the prairie and come suddenly to the Rockies. Banff is a small town surrounded by mountains, and it has been a draw for tourists ever since the Canadian Pacific Railroad came through in the 1800s. At first people came for the hot springs, and now it is a center for hiking, skiing, and white-water rafting.

This is the business part of our trip, since Wayne is presenting a paper at the AERE (Association of Environmental and Resource Economists) meetings. His paper: "Regulating costs during transition periods: US manufacturing productivity in the 1970s". We are staying at the Banff Centre where the meetings are being held. It is almost like a college campus, but with better residential rooms!

Wayne will be tied up in meetings all day tomorrow, but I'll see what I can find to do and report, without being authorized to drive our rental car...

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