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Published: September 20th 2013
When:Aug 30 - Sep 1 2013
Where: Writing on Stone Provincial Park, Milk River, Alberta
2.5 - 3 hrs N of Helena we crossed back into what felt like home instantly. In terms of landscape, nothing really changed. Just an imaginary border by human beings!!! But it made a world of difference to me, at least. Lesser questions, better verbal tone and of course the never-failing
Welcome to Canada nod. It felt precious after being away in another country for 7 days!
M became km, F became C but people remained almost the same. The people in Wyoming and Montana are not very different, or rather indifferent. Guess its the mountains!
Just 12 km N of the border, we entered the small town of
Milk River. We entered the visitor center that was exceptional. We educated ourselves about Alberta and its varied landscape and people.
Our campground was next door. We crossed the Milk River and tried to check in. There was a slight complication that they did not receive my reservation. But they had space and we pitched our tent for a mere $10 a night with WiFi. 😊 We honestly did not expect that!
We had an
early dinner and called it a night. We decided to leave early next morning to make full use of our 1 day at the park.
The reason for stopping over at Milk River, AB was to visit
Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park. Why visit? Hoodoos, rock art, native Indians, history, culture, spirits, life...a not-so ancient civilization I would say!
Being the last weekend of Summer, the campground inside the park was full. It remains full during all long weekends actually.
The owner of the campground is over 65 yrs and gave me a book on Milk River. Any town with one campground, one grocery store, one gas station, one bank excites me.
The next morning, we covered the 43 km to Writing-on-stone Provincial Park. Their visitor center could keep have kept us busy for an hour. Instead, we signed up for the Rock Art tour later that evening (6.00 pm). And ventured into the Hoodoo trail. We got excited and got off the trail. (Un)Expectedly, lost the trail. People had apparently ventured out and there were too many wrong paths crisscrossing. After some good searching we almost gave up before even starting! 😞
The Sun
bison
though looks like a pigwas burning. The air was dry. I had to drink water at every stop we made. Is it even worth going through the whole trail?
As irony would have it, we found the trail just around that time. So, we endured!
We picked up an interpretive book and I made it a point to read it out loud to everyone at every stop. We saw the sweetgrass hills. They reside in Montana though. Just am imaginary line!!!
ugh...
The trail got quite interesting with the book. We learnt much about the blackfoot people in the boiling heat. Learning about their lives eased my breath. I looked around. Such a dramatic place! Such an unforgiving place! What would've life been living here 3500 years ago?
More about
Blackfoot people. Very informative!
Here is a link to a few
Napi stories. They are pretty interesting. 😊
Writing-on-stone is a sacred place to the Blackfoot people. They still come here to offer prayers and conduct ceremonies.
Stop # 11 was the battle scene rock art and I could push my heat tolerance
no more. We turned back. The walk back to the campground was quick. The campground itself was refreshing. We set up for lunch and enjoyed some much needed pasta. As luck would favour S, she had a playground where she was busy for a while.
While at the campground, we saw people portaging their rafts from the beach. The Milk river is famous for this activity. People laze in their rafts and canoes for kilometers at a stretch. They basically got on their rafts on the water, lazed to the beach and got off there. And this repeated quite a few times. We then realized why the campground was full at all times.
When it was almost time for the tour, we reached the visitor center. Just about 6.00 pm, our guide, a park ranger, rode us to a restricted area. Apparently, the rock art in the area have been victim to vandalism.
Most of the people on the tour were from Calgary, but a few from down the States too. Apparently, Writing on Stone has the largest collection of Blackfoot rock art and carvings.
I did not
know I enjoyed knowing about culture and the ways of the old so much. Even S managed to ask a few questions and was quite interested most of the times. I would highly recommend the tour if you are in the area. We ended up asking more questions and hence our tour extended well past 8.30 pm. We were exhausted! The 10 day trip got to us and we were ready to get home.
The drive back to Milk river was uneventful. S fell asleep. So, we drove around town to discover the lone grocery store, gas station and a CIBC bank. The crazy wind from last night did not present itself. So, we slept peacefully.
Early next morning, we packed up and left Milk River. Lethbridge seemed closer than I had imagined. Its amazing that the return journey always seems faster in pace.
We reached home in time, all tanned and tired. S starts Kindergarten in 2 days. Back to the routine. Back to sanity!
We, the girls picked up books on Blackfoot people from the library. S is reading it too!!
Disclaimer: This
is the end of our 10 day trip to Yellowstone National Park. The first part of our journey *
should* follow soon. 😊
~travelbuffs
__________
Great Spirit, grant that I may not criticize my neighbor until I have walked a mile in his moccasins - American Indian Paryer
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aspiringnomad
Jason
Southern Alberta
I used to live just a few miles from here. Makes me nostalgic, even though I never did visit this place. Lovely pictures. Though take the 'authenticity' of some of these "Indian" proverbs with a pinch of salt.