…the real Canadian West as you’ve never experienced it before!
Forget dull museums and static roadside cairns – no other prairie experience can top our unique combination of living history and live hospitality.
Day Trip and Overnight Adventures
Our Buffalo Adventures are organized, pre-packaged and pre-arranged for you. You simply make one convenient payment and all arrangements, except for your vehicle, are included.
Day Trip Teasers and Adventures start from $55 per person
All-inclusive Overnight Adventures start from $210 per day, per person
Buffalo Adventures is available the whole summer of 2009. while the availability of individual Adventures may vary, the majority of the Adventures are available during these prime weeks:
June 8-13, 2009
July 13-18, 2009
August 10-15, 2009
Or join an existing tour
June 27th: Bodo Archaeology Adventure starting at noon
June 27th: Jewel of the Prairie starting at noon
June 27th: Buffalo Past and Present starting at noon
July 13th: Buffalo Past and Present starting at 12:30 pm
In addition to detailed interpretive maps of the area (which you can keep), you’ll also have a choice of locations for meals, which will be arranged at time of booking. All you have to do is show up at each Adventure site and participate as much, or as little, as you wish.
Getting Started
All Adventures begin at the Wainwright Museum located in the lovingly restored Canadian National Railway Station, Main Street, Wainwright. On your way down Main Street, be sure to keep your eyes open for the only freestanding memorial clock tower in Canada, erected in 1925 to commemorate the soldiers lost in the World Wars. In fact, if you don’t keep your eyes open you may drive right into it!
At the old train station, you will be given driving instructions to your adventures, so that you will be ready to drive out to each of them armed with suggestions for other fascinating sites to see along the route.
Here’s what you’ll do on a typical day
A typical Adventures experience is three-hours. At most, twelve guests will enjoy an Adventure at one time, which makes the experience truly personal and even more special.
Each Adventure is led by a local resident who is either still actively working in or newly retired from the field that their Adventure covers. These are not summer students who have memorized a set speech; these are true westerners with a genuine passion for their work and their way of life. You’ll have a hard time stumping these folks with your questions!
Each authentic Western Canadian adventure takes place at least partly in the great outdoors so don’t forget to bring your all-weather gear!
Our current Buffalo Adventures include:
- Parks and POWs – tour the Former Buffalo National Park and the German officer Prisoner of War (POW) camp in Wainwright, now operating as one of Canada’s most advanced military training bases. A herd of buffalo at the entry gate reflects the origins of the base, the former Buffalo National Park.
- Dig in at Bodo – uncover the true Aboriginal culture of the plains at one of the richest archaeological dig sites in western Canada.
- Buffalo Past and Present – examine an operating plains buffalo ranch, find out how today’s buffalo wranglers go about their work, see buffalo up close, and learn about their history and habitat from experts in the field. Also sample bison cuisine and see some buffalo leather products.
- Kemah Ranch Ruins – step back into the past and experience life as it was on the western Canadian prairies a century ago.
- Food from the Land – the modern agriculture industry in harmony with nature. Tour farm land and learn how grain crops and grasses, through methods of rotational grazing, are used, in today’s food production. Also visit a working cattle feedlot.
- Rails across the West – discover the origins of Wainwright and countless other prairie towns by visiting a railway interpretive park featuring authentic equipment from the Grand Trunk Pacific and Canadian National railways.
- Up Close and Personal with Buffalo – see grazing wood buffalo, eat bison burgers, explore the differences between plains and wood bison and learn about the story of their conservation here in Wainwright.
- Jewel of the Prairies – tour Alberta’s largest rural neo-Gothic church and cemetery, and hear stories about the German settlers who built it by hand in 1922.
- Antique tractors – climb on (count ’em) 85 historical John Deere tractors at Glen Rock Farm and learn all about life on prairie farms in the years after the horse.
There’s nothing else like this in all of western Canada.
Who should come?
Anyone with a desire to see the unspoiled Canadian West and learn about its people and history in an in-depth, hands-on way.
Our current Buffalo Adventures are designed for mature visitors and children who are at least 14 years of age.
Discover the unknown West while there’s still room.
What are guests saying about Buffalo Adventures?
"The area posses a degree of peace and tranquility that immediately set the stage for a rejuvenating educational journey. Additionally, the people I encountered were truly some of the most endearing personalities I have ever had the joy of crossing paths with."
