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Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada [Entry Page] [About This Site] [Park Information] [Thumbnails] [Back] [Next] Park Information This webpage is a photographic journey through the landscapes of Dry Island Buffalo Jump, an Alberta Provincial Park located in Central Alberta on the Red Deer River near the towns of Huxley and Tolman and in the region of the Red Deer River called 'badlands'. Also included are some photographs from other nearby Red Deer badlands -- areas that are evocatively beautiful and that also deserve park status, but don't yet have it. Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park is named for two of its features, a "buffalo Jump" and a "dry island." About 700 years ago, aboriginal hunters used the cliffs to drive buffalo to their deaths so that they could harvest the meat and hides. And, over the millenia, erosion has created an isolated island ... one of the few places where it's possible to walk on grasslands as they were before the extensive cultivetion that now characterize the region. The park is notable for its features. The lands along the banks of the Red Deer River, which cuts through the park, are a rolling grassland and a rich cottonwood riparian habitat. Between these bottom grasslands and cottonwoods and the top rim of the valley are countless formations, sometimes called hoodoos, that have been scultpted by rain, wind, and ice over the millenia. While the grasslands are lovely, the scupted canyon walls are breathtaking and unique. These habitats support a variety of wildlife and plants that uniquely depend on them for their survival. Since most of this type of habitat is already dedicated to farming, if we wish to protect unique species, we have to protect the wildlands that support them. If you want to read more about this type of habitat and the unique species that depend on them visit the web site: Alberta's Special Places. After intensive lobbying by the citizens of Huxley, Alberta, the Provinical Government established the park in 1970. For the most part, the park consists of a gate which is locked in the evening and picnic facilities at the bottom of the road that leads down from the gate to the bottomlands of the park. There are a number of easy to find footpaths in the park. In wet weather, the gate is locked because the mud in this area becomes particularly slippery making the steep road impossible to drove even with a 4-wheel vehicle. For more information about this park and others like it, visit these links:
I hope that you enjoy this webpage. ~ Ray Rasmussen, Edmonton |