Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park - 09-Apr-2011

This was a very short half day trip that we made. It was not at all on the cards. We did not have the rest of our group with us, many of them were touring Edmonton that day. We had rented a car on the 8th of April for our regular weekend purchases - groceries, household items and stuff. We and the car, both were free on the 9th, so we decided to sneak out of town. Doing some search on the net, I found out this Provincial Park - The Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park , which is located in Elnora, Alberta.

Tour Map

The park is located 178 kilometers North-East of the City of Calgary and features a typical badlands topography. It consists of a plateau, about 200 metres high in the middle of the park, which itself is along the Red Deer River. The site was used by the native tribes in earlier days for driving herds of Bison down the cliff to provide for food, and hence the name. The site has also had excavations done in the past and dinosaur fossils have been found here, which can be now found in the Royal Tyrrell Museum near Drumheller, Alberta. 

The Park Entrance

To reach this place we drove about 90 kilometers on HWY-2N (Deerfoot) through the towns of Balzac and Airdrie, and passed by Helmsdale and Crossfield till we reached HWY-27. We took a right there towards the East and drove through Torrington to reach Equity. Then we headed North to Trochu and then Huxley on HWY-21 before making a right to enter the Provincial Park.The tour was not planned, so we were taking it easy on exploring the place at our own pace.

Rahul (L) and Avneesh (R)

 

Anand (L) and Avneesh

 

Rahul (myself - left) and Avneesh

During summers, you can come to this place for camping. There are two campgrounds in this park - Tolman East and Tolman West, which were closed for the season as it was still snow. People also come here for bird watching as there are many local species found here. And then there is kayaking in the river water. We got to do only sightseeing, as other activities had not yet started. The sight actually is good and you get a wide view of the river valley that snakes beneath the plateau. The road to the camps below were closed due to snow. But we could watch it from above and it looked quite good. 

From atop the plateau

Badlands In The Backdrop

Our Rented Car - Nissan Altima

Campground Usage Instructions

After taking a good walk, we went further ahead to the other side of the plateau from where some more scenic spots could be noticed. 

Further On Into The Park

Snow Still Sticks Around In April

Pictorial Depiction Of The Area

A Little Bit On The Park

Red Deer River Frozen

The Track That Goes Below

Another one Showing The Track

Standing Against The Breeze

How The Natives Collected Food

Me

One More - This One On The Bench

Another Part Of The Park

Going Back

After this we wanted to visit Mudspring Lake. We drove to it which is about 25 kilometres South West of the park. Township road 585, which is mostly gravel, was taken to reach there. To our disappointment, the lake was still frozen and not distinguishable from the snow around it. We did not spend much time there and drove back to Calgary.