Alberta’s largest city, Calgary

NOTE:  I am doing blog posts as we find internet available, so I may do more than one a day.  Please be sure you have not missed a post!

On our way to Calgary we stopped at a World Heritage Site called Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump.  It is a very nice museum out in the middle of nowhere, but well worth your stop if you are going this way. The museum was designed and built into the side of the mountain so it does not detract from the surrounding plains.  The design guides you through the 5 story building telling the story of how for thousands of years the Indians hunted buffalo.  The most successful technique was to guide a herd over the edge of the cliff.  The Indians did not waste any part of the buffalo.

We never thought of Calgary as being large…there are over a million people and the area is growing.  Calgary was host to the 1988 Winter Olympics.  Our campground was not very far from Olympic Park.  Friday morning we drove over to Olympic Park.  Wayne and Mark rode what they call the Skyline Luge.  They are small “sleds” with wheels and steering lever/handle which also controlled the speed.  They run down what was used as the luge track for the Olympics. They ride a chair lift up and luge down.  They said it was fun.  We all took the chair lift up to the top and back down to enjoy the view.  It is great that they are using and maintaining the park.  They have mountain bike trails that runs down the mountain.  There was a camp going on for kids to learn how to ride the trails.  They take their bikes up on a special chair on the chair lift and the kids also ride the chair lift up the mountain.  Then they ride the trail down the mountain.  They all looked like they were having a great time.  You can pay to just ride the lift and trail and there is even a season pass.

After Olympic Park we took the train into town to the Stampede.  The Stampede reminded me of the State Fair in NC with some rodeo added to it.  Our favorite parts were the Peking Acrobats and the chuck wagon races.  No pictures were allowed of the Peking Acrobats.  They did dancing, balancing and juggling and were very good.  The chuck wagons are a team of four thoroughbred horses pulling a 1200 pound wagon with a driver that also has two men on horses called out riders.  Four teams compete at a time racing against each other and the clock.  Each chuck wagon does a figure eight around 2 barrels then race around a ½ mile track.  The outriders load a bag into the back of the wagon and cannot get on their horses until the bag is loaded and the wagon has gone around the first barrel.   The outriders must ride around the track and finish within a second of their wagon or the team is penalized one second.  If the wagon knocks down a barrel they are penalized several seconds.   We saw 9 races.  The horses were fast and beautiful.  There is LOTS of prize money involved.  It was late by the time we took the train and got back to the campground, all of us were tired after a busy day.

In the pictures below the first one is the chuck wagon parading by before the race. That same wagon is in the race in the second shot.

Saturday, Wayne and I went to the Calgary Farmer’s Market, which was more market than farm.  We then took a 12 mile bike ride along the Bow River in downtown Calgary.  They have a wonderful trail system throughout the city.  The bike path is a different path from the walkers so you do not have to worry about passing walkers.  We rode through a nice section of town including Princes Island.  The rest of the day was devoted to laundry and getting groceries.

Next stop Banff.