Reptiles at Risk

Grasslands National Park: A Hike up the Butte

Posted by Jeff Hathaway on August 15, 2006 at 10:18 AM

Next we went south, towards Grasslands National Park. After an afternoon program in Ponteix, we made it to Val Marie, where the park visitor's centre is located. Grasslands is different from many other parks, in that it is relatively new, and has been acquired through purchasing private land such as ranches. Most national parks are huge blocks of land that were Crown land to start with. Grasslands has been pieced together, and the process continues today on a "willing seller, willing buyer" basis- if a landowner with the proposed park boundary wants to sell, the park is a guaranteed buyer, but there is no pressure, and the park does a great job of co-existing with its various neighbours!

While camping is allowed within Grasslands, there are no serviced campgrounds, so we chose to stay at a nearby private campground, The Crossing, as we needed electrical power to run the heat for the animals at night, and our refrigerators. The Crossing is the closest campground to the park, and is a fairly new campground/ B&B operation that is still very small. The owners, Ken and Johanna, have started it as a retirement project, and I think they will do a wonderful job of running such a neat spot! After setting up the trailer and the animals, we set off on a hike up the Seventy Mile Butte. Not Butt- Butte, pronounced b-yoot! A gorgeous spot to watch a prairie sunset, but be sure to leave lots of time for the walk back to the trailhead. We saw some mule deer, as well as many raptors such as prairie falcons and Swainson's hawks. Pictures are up in the Flickr gallery.