Thur. 10th September ’26
Soon after leaving Waterton National Park we are back in the Great Plains, which apparently covers 1.1 million square miles from Alberta in Canada down to Texas in USA. We drive through areas of windfarms, arable farms and livestock completely flat in all directions as far as the eye can see. We are heading to Lake Louise and from Radium Hot Springs we could have cut across on Hwy 93 and saved ourselves 10 hours driving. We do agree that the detour to visit Waterton National Park was absolutely worth it. Without the detour we would have remained in mountains and trees and missed out on experiencing these Great Plains and the different geology in the south.
All this thinking brings us to coffee time, so we dive off into Fort McCleod. It sounds like it should have history, so I went to find out while Dave had coffee. The town was formed in the late 19th Century as Barracks for the North West Mounted Police lead by James F McCleod (why do they need a middle initial?) to deter whiskey traders from the US. These Americans traded their deadly firewater for buffalo robes and wolf skins from the Blackfoot nation. I manage a peek through the gates at the Fort before returning to find Dave.
The main attraction en route today is the interestingly named UNESCO site called Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump (yes, really). A fascinating museum explaining about the Blackfoot Nation and how they used the ridge at this site to drive buffalo off a cliff to their deaths. As mentioned above this area is flat so it was a surprise to come across this small ridge. It seems cruel to drive the buffalo over a cliff but it was all part of the ecosystem and at least the people used every part of the buffalo, drying the meat to last them through the winter, the skin to make warm clothing, the kidneys were a delicacy and the bones were ground up and used too. There were enough buffalo to allow this cycle to repeat as necessary.
Of course, when the white people came they saw so many buffalo and thought there would be a never ending supply so killed them for sport – including shooting at them from trains - and left the carcases to rot and soon very few buffalos were left, ending the buffalo herding to provide food. Having travelled world-wide we are familiar with what stupid things explorers did before conservation was a thing. About the head smashed in? One year a lad hid under the ridge to get a closer view and after the stampede he was found dead with his head smashed in.
My turn to drive the next section, so Dave was on lunch finding duty. The thought of a brisket sandwich in a 4.9 Google rated cafe lured him in, so The Country Stop in Granum it was. Talk about a one horse town, this one was a sleepy little place. The cafe was run by a lovely friendly lady who chopped and fried the vegetables in the brisket sandwich in her own sweet time. The lady was also making a big pot of hot chicken broth which was full of garlic as she was making it for a poorly friend. Sounds like a yummy lunch to us. Well all the chopping and bustling around the kitchen meant it took a good half hour for lunch to appear. The place was not busy, just one other couple. Somehow time didn’t matter in this little cafe in the back of beyond and yes, the brisket sandwich alone deserved the 4.9 rating away from the hustle and bustle of life.
This lunch stop put us a bit behind at it was nearly 6pm before we arrived at the Fairmont Chateau at Lake Louise but wow what a place. The service is tiptop and all the staff are smiley and have time to stop and chat. We fell in love with the place immediately. Talk about us and them, on all entrances were signs guests only beyond this point and we looked out on the crowded lake side from the serenity within. This was a luxury stay we had included in our BA holiday of flight, car hire and two nights here. That way we don’t know the rack rate to stay.
The view from our room looking out on the lake was fantastic and I was impatient to explore the hotel and lake. The sun set behind the mountains but there was not much colour in the sky, however just being here and watching the world/visitors go by is amazing. We ate in the Restaurant Louiza as the main restaurant was fully booked tonight, let us hope the fine dining tomorrow is as good as the experience here. Tonight is the darkest night of the month with the New Moon tomorrow so Dave armed with our bear spray headed out to try some astro photography, not my thing so I stayed in the hotel relaxing. He returned later, relieved still no bear sightings and with a bunch of images and more astro experience.