Estipah-skikikini-kots

Claire and Andy have now recovered from their flights so its time to break camp and go out exploring.

We went to Fort Whoop Up but it only open Wed to Fri...............bugger !!!

We went to the Fort Museum at Fort MacCleod, same................bugger !!!

Went to Head Smashed In, it was open...........................................Whoo Hoo !!!

Its the second time we had been there but it was all new to Claire & Andy, i love the place anyway and i always take loads of pictures.

Anyway we did the usual touristy things, we came, we saw, we took photos, we shopped, we pointed at the artifacts and said "ooooooooo, aaaahhhhhhh", then we left, yep i know, completely predictable but hey, we enjoyed it.

Here is a little discription of what its all about and as usual, please enjoy the pictures.

The buffalo jump was used for 5,500 years by aboriginal peoples of the plains to kill buffalo, by driving them off the 10 metre high cliff. The Blackfoot drove the buffalo from a grazing area in the Porcupine Hills about 3 kilometres west of the site to the "drive lanes," lined by hundreds of cairns, then at full gallop over a cliff, breaking their legs, rendering them immobile.

The cliff itself is about 300 metres long, and at its highest point drops 10 metres into the valley below. The site was in use at least 6,000 years ago, and the bone deposits are 10 metres deep. After falling off the cliff, the buffalo carcasses were processed at a nearby camp.

In Blackfoot, the name for the site is Estipah-skikikini-kots. According to legend, a young Blackfoot wanted to watch the buffalo plunge off the cliff from below, but was buried underneath the falling buffalo. He was later found dead under the pile of carcasses "where he got his head smashed in"