Imagine a wall of sandstone, ten metres high, with the plain falling away beneath it. For about five thousand years the Blackfoot and their ancestors used cliffs like this one, in the foothills of the Porcupine Hills in southern Alberta, to hunt bison. Hunters spent days guiding a herd, gently and patiently, along lines of stone cairns called drive lanes, until the animals were running without knowing it, and then the lead animals went over the edge. Below, the whole community waited with knives, and the meat and hides of one successful drive could see a band through the winter. UNESCO lists the site as one of the oldest and best-preserved examples of the method anywhere in the world.
The name sounds like a joke and is not. In the tale that has come down, a young man wanted to watch the bison fall from beneath the cliff, and the animals piled up so deep that he was killed, his head crushed under the weight. Whatever the truth, the name stuck. The interpretive centre is built into the cliff itself, with five floors of exhibits climbing through the rock, and the story is told partly by Blackfoot guides, which makes all the difference. At the top, you walk along the cliff edge and look across a sea of grass toward the Rockies, and the wind pulls at your jacket, the same wind that carries the scent of sage.
The roads here are prairie roads: wide, empty and straight for long distances, then gently rolling where the land lifts toward the mountains. Wind is the main theme. Chinooks, the warm, dry winds that roll down the eastern slopes of the Rockies, can gust hard enough to push a loaded motorcycle across a lane, and the whole region is dotted with wind turbines. Keep an eye on the grass verge for prairie rattlesnakes in warm weather, and for deer and pronghorn at dawn and dusk. Summer afternoons bring thunderstorms that build over the mountains, hail included, so plan your day to arrive early.
Fort Macleod, about seventeen kilometres away, has fuel and a few places to eat, and a museum of the old Mounted Police fort founded in 1874. Pincher Creek is the next bigger stop on the way to Waterton. Bring water and a layer for the wind. Late May to September is the usual season, though the roads can be clear in the shoulder months if you keep an eye on the forecast.