Day 31: July 16, 2016
Back in the Lower 48

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Barring the driving around I did while I was there, my first pass through Calgary was east to west on AB-1, the Trans Canada Highway. This pass was essentially north to south on AB-2 which apparently has no other name. Although no stops were planned, I would make two before reaching the border.

Although I wasn't expecting this and would not have even had a wild guess as to where it was, I recognized the name immediately. Head-Smashed-In is certainly a catchy name for a buffalo jump and that catchiness is probably a big reason for me remembering it. The drill on entering the building is to move to the top where a paved path leads to the actual jump site. A buffalo jump is a place where Native Americans stampeded buffalo over the edge after slowly moving them toward it. The Head-Smashed-In jump is the exposed rock area in the third and fourth pictures. It has been used many time with the first being nearly six thousand years ago. In addition to providing a good view of the kill zone, the concrete deck is a good place to look over the area to the south. I saw no buffalo while I was there but did see several marmots and got a picture of one.


By re-entering the building at its top, the exhibits can be viewed in the sequence intended during the descent. Displays describe the lives of area natives and there is a movie depicting a buffalo jump. According to legend, the name of the site does not come from the condition of the stampeding animals after the jump but from a native boy who wanted to watch a jump from below. He did but was unable to scurry away as planned. He was found beneath the resulting pile of dead buffalo with his head smashed in.

My second unplanned stop came in Cardston, Alberta. Cardston is the hometown of Fay Wray, the female lead in the original King Kong and the actress idolized by Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

There was a long slow moving line at the border but once I got to the front I was through in almost no time. Guess I'm getting better at this.

My home for the night was at Swiftcurrent Motor Inn at the end of Many Glacier Road inside Glacier National Park.

I didn't know a whole lot about the park but I quickly learned that one of its better known restaurants was just down the road and it was just now starting to serve dinner. Maybe if I hurried I could get a front row seat at the Many Glacier Hotel's Ptarmigan Dining Room. That didn't work out but even my back row table provided a nice view of Lake Sherburne and the trout was excellent.

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