Canada's Alberta is home to five sites on UNESCO's list of world treasures. It includes a dinosaur burial ground, an Indian buffalo hunting ground, and the beauty of the Rockies and the prairie.
By CLEO PASKAL
Published June 6, 2004
[Photo: Dr. Allan W. King]
This view of Spirit Island on Maligne Lake in Jasper National Park shows why the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks system is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. Go to photo gallery and map
To the discerning traveler, the UNESCO World Heritage List is what a homes-of-the-stars map is to a movie fan. It features renowned natural and historic names such as the Taj Mahal and Stonehenge, the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon. Listed are places of such cultural and natural importance that a United Nations-appointed panel of international experts has declared them of "exceptional universal value."
The places transcend national boundaries and enrich the planet. And the United Nations has committed itself to protecting them. There are 754 sites in 129 countries. The Canadian province of Alberta has five sites on the list. Here's a look at them, including part of the citation presented for their inclusion.
Dinosaur Provincial Park
Selected in 1979
"In addition to its particularly beautiful scenery, Dinosaur Provincial Park - located at the heart of the province of Alberta's badlands - contains some of the most important fossil discoveries ever made from the "Age of Reptiles,' in particular about 35 species of dinosaur. . . ."
It starts off looking like typically flat prairie land, all golden wheat swaying ridiculously perfectly in the wind. Then, suddenly, the land just drops away. Chasms open up. The crops are gone, replaced by harsh rock and cliffs. And you drive down, down into the past.
About 75-million years ago, this was a subtropical coastal plain on the edge of an inland sea. That happy meeting of water and lush vegetation was irresistible to huge herds of dinosaurs. They came to eat, breed and, finally, die. The fast-silting shore was ideal for preserving the fossilized bones.
Today, the sea is gone, leaving only the relatively small Red Deer River. The once-rushing hillside streams are now raw, dry glacial scars on the rocky slope. The temperature can tumble to 30 below zero in the winter. It is truly the badlands.
Unless you are a dino-fan. As the layers of silt have eroded, the bony treasures of the past have been uncovered. This is one of the richest dinosaur graveyards in the world. More than 300 plant and animal species, including 35 previously unknown dinosaurs, and hundreds of museum-quality specimens have been found here.
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
Selected in 1981
Head-Smashed-In is "a remarkable testimony of prehistoric life" and "bears witness to a custom practiced by native people of the North American plains for nearly 6,000 years."
I think Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump should have received its designation based on the name alone. But the folks at the United Nations are harder to impress than I am.
The site is in an always-surprising corner of Alberta where the prairies meet the Rockies. It is not an easy meeting: There are odd hills, curious river routes and sudden drops. If you had been one of the estimated 60-million buffalo that used to graze the plains, you would have found this area pretty confusing. Which is just what the local Blackfoot Indians wanted.
For about 6,000 years, the Blackfoot hunted the buffalo using not much more than an excellent grasp of geography and animal behavior.
The hunters would spend weeks maneuvering a group of buffalo through established paths. At the right moment, they would startle the herd, running it toward a barely perceptible (at least to stampeding buffalo) dropoff.
And voila, buffalo for dinner (also, for breakfast and lunch), buffalo hides for tents and clothes, buffalo sinew for thread, buffalo bones and horns for tools, a veritable trip to the buffalo Wal-Mart.
At some places below the cliffs, the bone piles are about 30 feet deep.
The name Head-Smashed-In (or estipah-skikikini-kots in Blackfoot) comes from the legend of an unfortunate Blackfoot boy who wanted to see the buffalo going over the cliffs. So he hid away under the cliff edge - and got his head smashed in.
The Blackfoot are spiritual people, and the vast sea of grass plains around the cliffs has a special place in their culture. It is where the group would come together to feast, celebrate and give thanks for the buffalo.
Today this area is just as beautiful. And just as powerful. A fascinating cultural center gives context to the hunt and offers many interactive programs. But it is enough just to be there. It is one of those places that simply feels special.
Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks
Selected in 1980, 1984 and 1990
The parks contain "outstanding examples representing major stages of Earth's history," "outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes" and "superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty."
The Rockies are the children of a tumultuous affair between continental plates. Over millions of years, the North American and the Pacific plates have been thrusting toward each other, throwing up mountain ranges as they have jostled for position.
The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks system is massive. Seven parks are spread out over two provinces (Alberta and British Columbia) and cover about 8,875 square miles.
Some parks you may have heard of: Banff, Jasper, Kootenay and Yoho. Others are less well known but just as beautiful: Cave and Basin National Historic Site, Mount Robson, Mount Assiniboine and Hamber.
This is postcard Canada: snow-capped mountains, thundering waterfalls, turquoise lakes, towering forests, craggy peaks, the Columbia Icefield, trickling brooks, the bizarre rock columns called hoodoos, echoing canyons, the Continental Divide and any Canadian cliche you care to think of, including Mounties, railroads and Canadian Pacific's chateau-style hotels.
The area has been impressing visitors for a long time. The word Yoho comes from a Cree word meaning, more or less, "wow." And when Canadian Pacific Railroad workers found a hot spring while building the transcontinental railroad, the government was quick to realize its tourism potential. In 1885, Banff became Canada's first national park.
Now more than 9-million people a year tromp through the seven parks. Most are concentrated in the Banff area, leaving many remote corners to be discovered. The parks have attractions from high-end spas to unusual fossil beds that existed many millennia before dinosaurs walked the Earth.
A note of caution to visitors: You'll share the parks with bears, wolves, lynx and many other decidedly wild animals. Have fun, take pictures and don't try to pose with anything dangerous.
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park
Selected in 1995
Made up of two national parks, Alberta's Waterton Lakes (about 203 square miles) and Montana's Glacier (1,564 square miles), Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park "is exceptionally rich in plant and mammal species as well as prairie, forest, and alpine and glacial features."
That's true, but that's not all that makes Waterton Lakes special. It is like a mini Banff, with 45 distinct habitats and about half of all the plant species in Alberta crammed in it. There are also snow-capped mountains, rushing streams, great biodiversity, meadows and even an adorably quaint town, Waterton Park, which is much smaller and much more real than Banff.
But the UNESCO experts took note of something unusual: the devoted cooperation between an assortment of Canadian, American, rancher and Indian groups to protect and serve the interests of nature.
It started in 1932, when the Rotary Clubs of Alberta and Montana united their parks into the world's first International Peace Park.
Since then, locals have been striving to adapt human bureaucracy to the realities of the wild. Elk migrate freely across the border. Ranchers let the rafts of trumpeter swans overflow onto their land. That rarest of all beasts, good communication, flourishes in the mountain air of Waterton.
Wood Buffalo National Park
Selected in 1983
"Wood Buffalo is Canada's largest national park, and the very embodiment of the space and wildness that symbolize northern Canada. Its (17,300 square miles) include huge tracts of boreal forest and plains, and some of the largest undisturbed grass and sedge meadows left in North America. Those meadows sustain the largest free-roaming herd of bison, commonly known as buffalo, in the world."
My first visit to Wood Buffalo shocked me. It wasn't because of the huge herds of roaming buffalo, the howling wolves, the Northern Lights, the millions of birds (including whooping cranes), the lynx that was sunning on my empty canoe, the open prairies, the great Peace and Athabasca rivers. Actually, yes it was. All of that.
Wood Buffalo is almost one-third the size of Florida. But because it straddles the border with the Northwest Territories, it gets about just 1,00O visitors a year. Most of them are day-trippers.
This is the wild, surprising, beautiful Canada that even most Canadians don't know exists. Raw, yet delicate. Bear tracks and clusters of pink wild roses.
Parts of it are karst topography: limestone that is honeycombed with underground rivers, springs, sinkholes and just about anything else water can do to rock.
Saltwater oozes up through the limestone and evaporates in the summer sun, creating large mounds of salt and glittering crystal salt plains. Thus, plants that normally grow only near the ocean flourish here, and the ground is dotted with the tracks of animals that have come to these natural salt licks.
In other parts, the land opens up into huge meadows. The sun-yellowed grasses and open spaces have the hot, sparse beauty of Africa. But here are buffalo, wolf, lynx, bear and caribou.
This is pure Canada. And it doesn't take a panel of experts to make you realize it is very special indeed.
- Cleo Paskal is a freelance writing living in Montreal.
If You Go
GETTING THERE: The major airport in Alberta is in Calgary, a city of almost 1-million. There is connecting air service from the Tampa Bay area to Calgary. Check the Web sites listed for each site for connecting air service. And you'll need a rental car.
Dinosaur Provincial Park is about a two-hour drive east of Calgary.
The park has 128 camp sites (59 with power), an informative on-site interpretive center (featuring an interesting movie about the history of dino prospecting in Canada) and many ways to get up close and personal with the remains of the original Jurassic Park. Activities include self-guided walks that lead over the parched hills (you will likely see lots of fossils in the strata) and assisting at paleontological digs.
It gets very hot in the summer, even for Floridians. The best times to visit are spring and fall.
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is about 105 miles south of Calgary. It is an exceptional place to learn more about civilization in North America before the Europeans arrived, such as how the Blackfoot and buffalo lived. There is an interpretive center staffed by members of the Blackfoot tribe. The center has a variety of family friendly programs, including guided walks to the archaeological digs; overnight cultural programs in which you sleep in tepees, eat native food and hear Blackfoot legends; and drumming and dancing demonstrations and instructions.
For more information: www.head-smashed-in.com 403 553-2731. Part of Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks is Banff National Park. It includes the Banff Center. Since 1933, the center has been in serious pursuit of the finer things in life. Its 47 acres comprise a warren of recording studios, performance halls, writers' retreats, multimedia centers and dance studios. Thousands of artists "rough it" at the center each year.
The public can attend regular concerts, lectures, and book and film festivals. There are also occasional workshops on topics from stage fighting to grizzly bear tracking.
Waterton Lakes is about a three-hour drive south of Calgary. Waterton Park, the only town, has been a resort destination and has some lovely historic places to stay. In the summer, there are a range of well-marked hiking trails for all levels, horseback riding, swimming and boating. The winter offers snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.
For more information: www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ab/waterton/index_e.asp 403 859-2224. Wood Buffalo National Park's main gateway and interpretive center is in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. There are direct flights from Edmonton, Alberta, and Yellowknife, Northwest Territories.
The nicest time to visit is late August and September, when you get the Northern Lights, fewer bugs and less heat.
You can canoe or hike in the park, learn about aboriginal cultural tourism, fish in the summer and snowmobile in the winter. The birding is great.
If you are heading in alone, tell Parks Canada your plans and be sure you know what you are doing. Alternatively, you can head in with a guide. River Trails North is at www.taigatour.com or call 867 872-2060.
