Tour - 'swanson's road'
Start time: Flexible
Duration: 2+ hour
Location: "Headless Crow Crescent"
Highlights: Local history, geology, archeology, commanding views, pre-colonial history
Cost: $200 (Max. 4 participants, $75 per additional participant)
Parking at the gate marked by the “headless crow crescent” sign on Township Road 434 we are ready to embark on a journey into the Battle River valley down Swanson‘s road (the only documented name for this ancient trail).
Speculation is that this trail was used for centuries by both man and beast as it afforded direct and relatively easy access to the valley floor and more importantly to a shallow, solid river crossing. A plateau at the base of the trail affords a view of the full magnitude of Ferry Point Bluffs. These sandstone bluffs were an unerodable barrier to the cascading jokulhlaup (Icelandic word for glacial outburst) and responsible for diverting part of the estimated 200,000 tons/sec flow, which created the myriad coulees to the south and east which transported the diverted water back into the main Battle River and Meeting Creek channels downriver of the Bluffs.