Stories, snakes and sons

Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park/Áísínai’pi (Illustration by Cory Proulx)

Driving across Alberta’s grasslands, the horizon reaches about as far as you can see. The land is flat, stretched taut over the skin of some of Canada’s best grasslands — which are among the world’s most endangered ecosystems. Travelling through this landscape in no way prepares you for your first glimpse of Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park/Áísínai’pi — a UNESCO World Heritage site. Dipping over the crest of the Milk River valley, hoodoos — the sun-bleached bones of the Prairies — become visible. This is the land of the Blackfoot people, where petroglyph tablets share stories of generations and vindicate the park’s inclusion into the UNESCO club. Just as eroding winds shaped the iconic pillars of the hoodoos, these curvaceous landforms have shaped millennia of visions.

Looking back on my many visits to Writing-on-Stone, I now realize that by getting lost in this hoodoo maze as a child, I was actually finding something within myself. By spending time in places like this, the compass of my life was set to align with birds, bugs and fresh air.

I recently returned to the park with my two young sons. It was my chance to help them discover something in this sacred place. Unbeknownst to us, we had pitched our tent on a highway for reptiles and amphibians.

Bullsnakes, wandering gartersnakes and even a rattlesnake slithered through our site, between their upcountry hibernacula and their riverside summer grounds.

Most slithered through uncelebrated, but a couple provided a showcase. We admired a yearling rattler at a distance, until it was safely moved by park staff. I later formalized introductions between my boys (plus a throng of onlookers) and a bullsnake calmly coiling in my arms.

I shared information with them about the snake; but these moments are always more about feelings than facts. Feelings are our memories’ trigger.

I’m proud that my sons continue to react well to every snake they meet. It’s hard to know whether they remember anything from their first intimate encounter with that bullsnake. But such moments crucially inform our character and the values upon which they are inscribed.

This story first appeared in the fall 2019 issue of the Nature Conservancy of Canada Magazine. Donors who contribute at least $25 or more per year will receive four issues of the magazine. Click here to donate today and start receiving the magazine.