Topographic Maps of Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park

An oasis in the prairies is about as rare as in the desert. You travel for hundreds of kilometres, only seeing the waving fields. Of course, that is assuming that there is a breeze, as there often isn’t in the summer time on the prairies. You can often have days where temperatures soar past 30 degrees Celsius,without any cloud in the sky, without any slight breeze. It is on these days, these unbearably hot days, that we inevitably were travelling from Saskatchewan, through Alberta, to get to the cool mountains in British Columbia.

If you are travelling on the southern route, Highway 3, turn south onto Range Road 73 at Seven Persons.  Turn west on highway 61, just before Orion.  Continue on Highway 61 until Foremost, where you will go south again on Range Road 114 (Highway 879). Turn west on Township Road 32 (Highway 501), from here you should be able to follow the signs to Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park and the Milk River.  Yes, this park is a bit isolated, but still expect that it will be busy.

As you descend into the valley that has appeared out of nowhere, you may begin to understand why I’m suggesting you go this far out of your way.  The Milk River, combined with glaciation and wind, has carved out this narrow valley in southern Alberta. As you drive down, you will pass fantastic sandstone hoodoos on your left. Among these hoodoos are petroglyphs, that may have been there for 9000 years. The hoodoos themselves are a fantastic reason to visit the park, but once you start walking around them in the heat of summer, you will begin to understand why the Native Canadians stayed in this area.

It can get so blistering hot on the prairies, that heading down in the cooler valley is a nice change. It gets even better once you find the Milk River, which is usually full of kids swimming and floating downstream for a while in the fast current. The Milk River gets its name from the sediment load that’s carrying, a type of rock flour that has been crushed at it’s headwaters.

This is definitely a place where you want a map to get to, as it is only labelled on signs when you get within a few kilometres of the park.

To begin creating your own topographic map, head over to “Create New Map” at MapSherpa.