We arrived at the Bar U Ranch with overcast skies and an occasional light rain.  The Bar U Ranch at its peak, extended over 160,000 acres with 30,000 cattle and 1000 Percheron horses. It was the largest breeding ranch for Percheron horses in the world. Today it is 365 acres and operated as a National Historic Site by the Canadian Parks Service.  This is the first time they have let anyone camp there overnight and have invited us back again. They feed us dinner of cowboy stew and a fantastic breakfast buffet. After dinner a cowboy poet entertained us with his stories and poetry.

 

Around the campfire at the Bar U Ranch.

One of the barn on the ranch.

Chuck Wagon at the Bar U.

Cowboy Poet.

Our next next stop was Waterton National Park, The weather was cool and partially cloudy.  We took a boat ride on Waterton Lake in to Montana, The only thing there was a border crossing and some hiking trails.  The custom agents rode with us on the boat and will return on the last return boat.

 While there we visited the Frank slide area where on April 29, 1903 over 80 millions tons limestone rock slide down the mountain killing between 70 and 90 people, most are still buried there today.  The slide only took 100 seconds and traveled one and a half miles to the opposing hill and was up to 490 feet deep. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide).

Waterton Lake.

Waterton Lake at the end of the boat ride in Montana.

View from Bear Hump overlooking Waterton. 2008

Waterton Hotel. 2008

Frank Slide area, some of the bolder that came down were as 

large as a dump truck.

From Waterton we drove all of 30 miles to Hills Spring and the Great Canadian Barn Dance. This is another one of our favorite places. The family that owns the campground,  husband, wife and two sons, granddad and uncle are also musically talented. After cooking us a wonderful dinner they put on a show including many types of music from country to classical.  

We also paid a visit to the Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  We learned how the First Nations People gathered meat for the winter by running the buffalo off a cliff.  We also saw some native dancing while there.

After lunch we drove around the area to look at some of the huge windfarms; some with as many as 144 wind turbines.

First Nations dancer at the Buffalo Jump.

First Nations dancer at the Buffalo Jump.

First Nations dancer at the Buffalo Jump.

First Nations dancer at the Buffalo Jump.

Wind turbines, some are as tall as 260 feet and the blades are as long as 145 feet.