Majorville Medicine Wheel, Alberta

This is one of those places that I have been wanting to visit. I had no particular reason to see it other than I wanted to say I had been there. My reasons for going places are rarely complicated. There are two ways in, the easier one is off Highway 539 east of Lomond, Alberta.

Located at: 50.585171, -112.410627

After a few miles of gravel road you will see a sign.

The gravel road quickly turns into this trail after a Texas gate. You might be able to get there in a car. It is better if you have a truck or an SUV. There is about six kilometres of trail like this over rolling hills and a gradual increase in elevation to get to the site.

The first snake, a Garter Snake, that I have seen in Alberta. Something killed it.

Once you get to the spot it is fenced off with a gate and a Government of Alberta sign is at the entrance giving a little history about the place. The wheel is over four thousand years old. Apparently there are forty of them in Alberta. This one is a group six. Of the known medicine wheels only three belong to this category, the other two are in South Dakota and Wyoming.

You walk up a bit of an incline and there is the cairn or hub.

I did not expect to see a concrete marker close to the cairn.

The marker is stamped "Geodetic Survey of Canada".

Some people have left a few items at the cairn.

A "spoke" radiating out from the cairn.

You cannot really see it but there is a line of stones making an arc in the grass which circles the cairn.

The medicine wheel is on the top of the highest hill in the area. You can see for miles. Photos do not do this place justice and it is hard to capture the experience in a few pictures. The wheel is on a high point and you can see the rolling landscape of the prairie for miles in any direction. You can understand why people picked this spot to build something.