Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park, Alberta, July 4, 2014

[Lori S.]

We took a drive out the other day to walk around the badlands and see if the prickly pears (Opuntia polyacantha) were in bloom...
   

[Lori S.]

Our timing was on... the bloom has begun!  Other dry prairie plants are also in bloom... Sphaeralcea coccinea and unknown Asteraceae  (EDIT:  Hymenoxys richardsonii):

[Lori S.]

Artemisia longifolia; views; unknown Astragalus(?):

[Lori S.]

Erigeron sp.; Eriogonum flavum; interesting moth, seems unusual for here  Edit - identified as Hypoprepia miniata, the scarlet- winged lichen moth - thank you, Ron!:

[Lori S.]

A fuzzy gall on Artemisia longifolia; Senecio canus; sorry for the bug photos, Maggi! - these inch-long blister beetles (Lytta nutallii, I think) were beautifully iridescent, and we saw quite a few of them having their mating scrum:

[Lori S.]

Views (x2); Dalea purpurea; more views:

[Lori S.]

Penstemon procerus, in numbers I'd never have imagined (the third photo is disappointing but the vague blue haze in the grass is hundreds of Penstemon procerus - you'll have to take my word for it  ); also Penstemon gracilis, well represented in smaller numbers:

[Lori S.]

Gaillardia aristata; buffalo berry, Shepherdia canadensis; Lilum philadephicum (and I swear that flower was already broken off when I got there  - I imagine a deer or something walked through there):

[Lori S.]

Heuchera richardsonii; different colours - different species of grass; the popcorn texture of bentonitic clay (dark gray foreground); a last shot of the Red Deer River valley:

[Matt T]

Penstemon procerus, in numbers I'd never have imagined

Just stunning!

Lori, do you know why this landscape and others like it are known as "badlands"?

[Lori S.]

Hi, Matt.  These highly eroded areas are called "badlands" because they were difficult to move wagons through, easy to lose cattle in, and poor for agriculture - a huge contrast from the surrounding flat or rolling plains.  The exposures of varicoloured Cretaceous muds, coal and sands make for nice scenery and a special habitat - fascinating from that point of view.

[Maggi Young]

I must be getting even lazier - even with big bugs I just love these virtual walks, Lori! 

[Matt T]

Hi, Matt.  These highly eroded areas are called "badlands" because they were difficult to move wagons through, easy to lose cattle in, and poor for agriculture - a huge contrast from the surrounding flat or rolling plains.  The exposures of varicoloured Cretaceous muds, coal and sands make for nice scenery and a special habitat - fascinating from that point of view.

Thanks Lori. Generally a bad place to find yourself (unless you happen to be a geologist, botanist, entomologist etc)! I didn't know if it was because there were bandits/outlaws in the badlands (in days gone by, not present day), but have may be been watching too many "Spaghetti Westerns"?

[jandals]

Hi Lori . Do you know how the place got its name ? I was wondering if it's a dry island then why do the buffalo have to jump

[Lori S.]

So sorry for the very late reply, Steve!  I just saw your question now.  I think this intro that I wrote for a previous post on this area will answer your questions:

Dry Island Buffalo Jump is "the name of an Alberta provincial park about 180 km north and east of here... where the present-day Red Deer River winds through a negative-topography landscape of buttes and mesas - "badlands".  The  Red Deer River is a classic "underfit" stream... meaning that the river is much too small to have cut the valley it now flows through.  The valley was instead cut (catastrophically) by a vast, powerful river that drained a glacial lake that formed a couple hundred thousand years ago(+/- ??)  from the melt of continental glaciers.  The power of the water release was such that a 450' (or 650' deep - my sources differ!) deep valley was eroded down through recent sediments, and into Cretaceous sediments (~80 million years old... the age of dinosaurs, and paleontological exploration has turned up many finds here).   There is an isolated grass-topped butte in the center with forested slopes... the "dry island".  (Water levels would have to rise back to some previous level - a couple hundred feet higher - to make it a true island again.) 

The "buffalo jump" part is explained thusly... aboriginal people used the area to hunt bison, driving the herds off the high cliffs, and to their deaths some 140' below.  It's the most northerly buffalo jump in Alberta, and apparently, it was used on and off over the past 4000 years, up until about 400 years ago.  Not many spear points have been found in the archaeological digs here (as compared to the jumps farther south) since the fall off the cliffs was fatal, and thus the buffalo did not need to be dispatched!*

*Ref:   In Search of Ancient Alberta, Barbara Huck and Doug Whiteway"