Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

About this spectacle

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is one of the world's oldest and best-preserved buffalo jump sites on the Alberta plains. For thousands of years, Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains drove vast herds of bison over a sandstone cliff edge, a practice central to Plains culture and survival. Today visitors stand at the cliff edge and look out across the rolling foothills and prairie, imagining the thundering approach of bison herds. A modern interpretive centre built into the cliff face presents artifacts, bone beds, and storytelling that bring the landscape's deep human history to life. The wind sweeps across the grasslands, hawks circle overhead, and the scale of the open sky gives the site a quiet, profound atmosphere. The bone deposits below the cliff represent centuries of accumulated hunts, and visible stratigraphy in the exposed banks speaks to the immense timeline of human presence here.

When to go

May — Oct, peak May — Sep

Getting there

Nearest airport: LET. Nearest city: Lethbridge.

Booking options

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