CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 486 km round trip from Fort Macleod - roughly 8 h 08 in the saddle. On the way it passes Waterton Glacier International Peace Park and back through Waterton Glacier International Peace Park. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,850 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Canada into United States - carry ID and check the toll rules. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
This part of the ride is 122 km of Waterton Glacier International Peace Park → Waterton Glacier Internati.
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.
Read the complete Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is where the day begins. Next is Waterton Glacier International Peace Park.
In 1932, the people of Alberta and Montana decided that two parks that shared a border might as well share a name. Waterton Lakes National Park in Canada and Glacier National Park in the United States became the world's first International Peace Park, a gesture of friendship that grew from a suggestion by Rotary clubs. UNESCO later recognised it as a World Heritage Site, and the two parks are managed together for wildlife, even though visitors cross a border to get from one to the other.
Read the complete Waterton Glacier International Peace Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Waterton Glacier International Peace Park comes up about 120 km into the recorded legs. Next is Waterton Glacier International Peace Park.
The southern half of the Peace Park is Glacier National Park in Montana, a rugged expanse of peaks, lakes and valleys carved by ice, with the Continental Divide running through its core. The park was established in 1910 and covers more than a million acres, and in its heyday it held about a hundred and fifty glaciers. Climate change has reduced that to a few dozen, and the shrinking of the ice is one of the park's central stories.
Read the complete Waterton Glacier International Peace Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 242 km into the recorded legs you reach Waterton Glacier International Peace Park. Next is back through Waterton Glacier International Peace Park.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Waterton Glacier International Peace Park write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Waterton Glacier International Peace Park, late in the day. Next is Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump. That is the ride.
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump → Waterton Glacier International Peace Park is 120 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Waterton Glacier International Peace Park → Waterton Glacier International Peace Park is 122 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Waterton Glacier International Peace Park → back through Waterton Glacier International Peace Park is 116 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Waterton Glacier International Peace Park → Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is 127 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.