Writing-on-Stone

The Milk River has cut through soft sandstone in southern Alberta to leave a valley of hoodoos and cliffs in the middle of otherwise flat prairie, and for a very long time the Blackfoot and other plains peoples came here to carve and paint on those walls. Áísínai'pi, the Blackfoot name, means it is written, and the valley holds the largest concentration of rock art on the Great Plains: thousands of figures across dozens of sites, from ceremonial and vision imagery to later scenes recording horses, shields and encounters. The place is still sacred to the Blackfoot Confederacy. UNESCO listed it in 2019. Most of the art is in a restricted area seen only on a guided tour.

History

People lived in the Milk River valley as early as 9,000 years ago, and the Blackfoot, who saw the cliffs and hoodoos as homes of powerful spirits, probably made many of the carvings and paintings, perhaps with the Shoshone; from about 1730, as horses, metal goods and guns spread across the plains, mounted hunters and warriors began to appear in the rock art. In 1887 the North-West Mounted Police set up a post here to stop whisky smuggling and horse raids across the border, closed it in 1918 and rebuilt it in 1973-1975. The park was created in 1957, became an archaeological preserve in 1977, and on 6 July 2019 was inscribed as a World Heritage Site under its Blackfoot name, Áísínai'pi (Wikipedia, Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park).

The main sights

• The rock art - thousands of carved and painted figures on the cliffs.
• The hoodoos - sandstone pillars along the Milk River valley.
• The guided tour - the restricted archaeological preserve, by tour only.
• The Sweetgrass Hills - the distant peaks visible across the plain.

When to go

May to September is the season for tours and camping; the prairie is baking in July and August and mornings are far better. Guided tours of the restricted area run on a set schedule and fill quickly in summer. Spring brings the greenest valley and the fewest people.

Before you go

The best rock art is inside a restricted preserve you cannot enter alone, so a visit without a booked tour sees only the small self-guided section. Summer heat in the valley is intense with almost no shade. Rattlesnakes are present. It is a long way from anywhere, with the nearest town very small.

Nearby

Lethbridge is ninety minutes northwest; Head-Smashed-In is about two hours away.