HEAD EAST FOR DRY DOINGS IN THE DESERT
Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park filled with wildlife, scenery and history
I stopped dead in my tracks, and so did the snake on the trail four feet away. My heart beat like a trip hammer for a few seconds until I realized the snake had no rattles, and I resumed breathing as I watched it slither off the trail into the brush.
When hiking in Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park, you do need to take care where you put your feet and hands – it’s home to the prairie rattler as well as the bull snake, wandering garter snake and plains garter snake. Located in southeastern Alberta, 44 kilometres from the town of Milk River, Writing-on-Stone is also home to pronghorn antelope, deer, marmots and numerous birds, including nighthawks and prairie falcons.
The park's main attraction, though, is the Aboriginal rock art for which it is named. Visitors can view images as old as 6,000 years on the sandstone cliffs. There are two types: petroglyphs, carved into the stone using bones and antlers; and pictographs, painted on the rock with ochre (a mixture of crushed iron ore and water or bison fat).
With more than 50 rock art sites within its boundaries, the park contains the largest concentration of North American aboriginal rock art. The plains people considered this area to be a sacred, spiritual place, which partially explains the high concentration of images.
You can view this art on self-guided and guided interpretive tours. We had our snake encounter hiking back from rock art known as the Battle Scene, a five-kilometre round-trip hike on the Hoodoo Trail that takes you through some eerie moonscape terrain and down along the flood plain of the Milk River.
While the Hoodoo Trail offers interesting scenery, wildlife viewing and rock art, the best rock art is protected in a restricted archeological preserve and can be viewed on a tour led by a park interpreter. You need to pick up free tickets an hour before the tours begin – the park gives out a maximum of four per person, on a first-come, first-served basis.
BACK COUNTRY HIKING
If you want to get away from the campground area and go a little further into the desert, you can do some backcountry hiking on the south side of the river, in the Davis and Humphrey coulee areas (maps of the areas are available at the park office). The backcountry area encompasses about 2,300 acres of hoodoo fields, grasslands and narrow sandstone canyons – there are no formal trails, but a network of game trails provides easy access to most areas.
If you do plan to hike in the backcountry, remember to carry plenty of drinking water (at least two to three litres per person) and wear a hat and sunscreen, as temperatures above 40 C are not uncommon in the coulees. Also, watch your step – fragile sandstone breaks easily, resulting in falls and potentially serious injury, and rattlers are not uncommon.
ACCOMMODATIONS
Campground reservations are not accepted at Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park – the sites are allotted on a first-come, first-served basis. If the park is full when you arrive, there are other camping options:
· Heninger Dam Campground, 18.5 kilometres from Writing-on-Stone.
· Milk River Campground, in the town of Milk River, 44 kilometres from the park.
· Goldsprings Campground, 54 kilometres from the park.
· Warner Campground, in the village of Warner, 18 kilometres north of Milk River.
· Ridge Reservoir Campground, 83 kilometres from the park.
For more information about Writing-on-Stone, call the park office at (403) 647-2364. |
