Cowboys and Badlands, Alberta Canada

Judy — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:19:50 +0000

Bloodless bullfighting at the Oyen Bull-A-Rama

A highlight of our Canadian Badlands Alberta trip in 2007 was the annual Oyen Bullarama. We arrived in the late afternoon in Oyen, a town of 1200 near the Saskatchewan border. The parking lot was already a sea of pickup trucks. A bullarama is professional bullriding and “bloodless bullfighting”- the latter is basically a guy in brightly coloured clothing taunting a huge bull. The event is an adrenalin rush like no other. The day had been full sun and the evening light was phenomenal. Glenn was up in the announcer’s booth busy snapping pictures. I took to the stands. Everyone from miles around was there, about 4000 people. Service clubs served hot beef on a bun and the best homemade corndogs I’ve ever tasted and there was a beer tent serving cold beer.

Bull riders and handlers getting ready around the chutes.

The dirt in the ring flew, the excitement was electric and I was transfixed by the guy on the back of a huge black bull. A local told me “it’s not if the bullrider gets hurt but when!” I couldn’t be a mother and watch my son do this but plenty do. The cowboys who ride the bulls are as tough as nails and few wear any type of head gear other than a cowboy hat, so the likelihood of a bull whipping his big head around and nailing a guy badly is very real. They’re good looking these cowboys in their faded blue jeans and chaps. A big silver belt buckle is the sure sign of a champ and the gals who chase the champs are known as buckle bunnies. The night we’re there the Cereal kid, a local bullriding champ, wins. His family breeds “stock” (bulls for bullriding) and the kid is from a long line of bullriders. This is Canada’s true wild west. The Oyen Bullarama takes place every year in late July.

This is the safest place to be when there's an angry bull in the ring.

The Ultimate Canadian Road Trip

admin — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 19:19:57 +0000

: Rainbow in the big Alberta sky

No traffic, big skies: For downtown Torontonians, we learned we could actually enjoy driving again. We crisscrossed The Canadian Badlands in southeastern Alberta from Calgary to the Saskatchewan border south through Medicine Hat and Cypress Hills to the Montana border, west to the border town of Milk River and north through Siksika Nation to Stettler and Drumheller. Here are some of the highlights.

Interior of the new Blackfoot Crossing interpretive centre, Siksika Nation, Alberta

The new Blackfoot Crossing: Canada’s largest aboriginal historic site. This place so impressed us. Although smaller, I would put it on the scale of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. Extraordinary collection of Plains Indians history on the site of the famous Treaty Seven signing by Chief Crowfoot who is also buried close by. The site overlooks an original grassland valley that has not been touched by modern civilization. You can feel the ghosts of the Blackfoot riding horseback here. http://www.blackfootcrossing.ca/

Pots on exhibit at Medalta Potteries National Historic Site, Medicine Hat, Alberta

Medicine Hat’s incredible historic clay district: I had no idea of this city’s pottery history. The first finished goods to be shipped from western Canada to eastern Canada were crocks, etc from Medalta potteries (now, a national historic site). This clay district supplied Canada’s hospitality industry with dishware, etc. You can still find old crocks and dishes at flea markets all over Canada today. We got great shots of present day Medalta collection and of its wonderful gift shop where you can order fabulous reproduction bowls and more. http://www.medalta.org/

Oyen, Alberta’s annual Bull-a-Rama: a professional bullriding and bullfighting event that literally took our breath away. So up close and personal compared to the Calgary Stampede. The dust was flying. This is where we got to meet real Badlands cowboys. Everyone wears Wranglers’ cowboy cut jeans (and I mean everyone). They serve homemade corndogs and beer and everyone from infant in arms to great-grannies comes out for this annual event. We snapped some incredible pix here too.

Dinosaur Provincial Park: a UNESCO world heritage site where you can hike to a huge centrosaurus bonebed. It is as if the gods shook a big bag of bones onto the site. It’s about the size of two tennis courts and contains the bones of an entire centrosaurus herd – near Brooks, Alberta. UNESCO

Canadian Roadstories » Oyen

Cowboys and Badlands, Alberta Canada

The Ultimate Canadian Road Trip