Okotoks Erratic

Okotoks Erratic is a quartzite boulder in Foothills County, Canada, that extends 41 meters in length while rising 9 meters high and measuring 18 meters across. Its pale rock stands out against the surrounding grassland and shows pink and purple tones that shift in intensity depending on the light.

The boulder traveled from the area of present-day Jasper National Park during the last ice age around 30,000 years ago, moving across hundreds of kilometers. The melting glacier left it behind on the prairie, where it has remained ever since.

The Siksika refer to this formation as Okatok, a name tied to its shape, and their oral traditions connect the crack running through it to the actions of Napi during the world's creation. Visitors today can still observe this deep split, which carries meaning through these stories and makes the site a living part of local memory.

The site sits right along Highway 7 with its own parking area, from which the boulder can be reached in a few steps. The open location allows visits in any season, with early morning and late afternoon offering particularly good light for observation.

The quartzite composition can be traced back to a mountain range now more than 300 kilometers to the northwest. The characteristic cracks in the rock formed through repeated freezing and thawing of water in its natural joints, a process that continues to be active.