A Dinosaur Stampede

Cypress Hills in Alberta is unusual, there’s no Cypress Trees there. Apparently, the original settlers there mistook Lodge Pole Pine for them, rookie mistake eh?! A great site to stop at overlooking Elkwater Lake and the undulating hills opposite, with the looming clouds hanging and teasing. After a very stormy night we woke to bright sunshine and given the area has a fantastic array of bike trails (ski resort in winter, hikes and bikes in summer) we headed out. It’s one of the best areas so far, lots of connecting trails and a mix of riding, great views of the hills and forests from 1400m…. until it starts thundering and raining again. Taking cover in the forest, I have to say the ride back when it backed off was the pretty scary. The trails had turned to mud and it was hard to stop sliding on the downhill. Spending a couple of hours cleaning the bikes afterwards, Nick said it’s ‘a sign of a good ride’…. Really?!! We needed the ice cream and a drink afterwards!

From Cypress via Medicine Hat for provisions, and the worlds largest wigwam, we headed further west. We saw someone moving house, literally! We cannot stress enough how diverse the landscape of Canada is, well it is a big place so to be expected. We were however, massively taken aback by The Badlands (South East Alberta). No, we hadn’t just watched an Al Pacino film, we had crossed Alberta’s Prairies, discussing the relative merits of circular crop watering systems and then wow, The Alberta Badlands. From very flat prairies we turned a corner and this incredible landscape opened up. We’d never seen anything like it and were taken aback as we slowly drove down off the flats into Dinosaur Provincial Park. Hopefully the pictures will describe it better than I can.

The area was formed from melt waters of the last ice age and the erosion of the limestone rock. The Red Deer River runs through it, lined by Cottonwood Trees, it’s a surreal landscape of bare sunbaked hills and lunar flats, unusual rock forms and Hoodoo’s. It’s also one of the worlds richest fossil beds. The landscape changes daily with wind and water erosion, it really is phenomenal. Staying at the campsite there we could hike among the rocks and forms where the hard and soft rock erosion has created gorgeous shapes of beauty and mystery among the barren. The hoodoo’s especially, where eventually gravity topples the capstone of harder rock were stunning.

In terms of the park, over the past 100 years they have unearthed over 400 full skeletons, collected 1000’s of fossils and are continuing to discover from over 75million years ago. No wonder its protected as a field station of the Royal Tyrrell Museum. We had an amazing couple of days wandering the trails around the lands, sitting looking at the awe inspiring landscapes and the moodiness at times, of the skies.

Sad to leave the hold that Dinosaur had over us, we headed on. A quick visit to Dorothy (mum wanted to know where she was from!) which we found was a 3 road, 2 church, 1 horse kinda place and then to The Atlas Coal Mine, Canada’s most complete historic coal mine and home to their last wooden coal tipple. I thought it was a drink too… It was the last of its kind in the valley and worth a wander. From there, to Wayne, (who also wanted to know where he was from, kidding!) a semi ghost town with a tourist centred saloon, live country music band and a woman from Manchester selling ice-cream…. we arrived at Drumheller. Everyone we’ve met has said we had to go to Drumheller and that night on a walk into town we found out why. The ginormous plastic Dinosaur, that’s why! Everything in the town was Dino this or that…. In all serious, it’s because of the Royal Tyrrell Museum on the edge of town.

We can’t remember the last time we spent 4.5hours in a museum but RTM was the most amazing place. Trawling us through the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic era’s to the current Quaternary period of the Cenozoic era (2.6million years ago to present day) we learned so much then promptly forgot it all… (I obviously made notes of that bit!) I’ve decided my brain is full and needs a download somehow to a memory stick… why do you think we write this blog?! One day they’ll be printed into a large coffee table book for our retirement home. Anyway, we resisted the urge to take photo’s of all the skeletons (dinosaurs that is not visitors) and every single piece of information, deciding it had to be an immersive experience. It truly was, life through all the ages until mass extinction 66 million years ago brought to life in a way that makes The Natural History Museum feel stuffy. Big open spaces, original fossils and diorama scenes, it was just brilliant. They hadn’t felt the need to dumb it all down for children, quite the opposite, it was just great!

The Calgary Stampede was one of those events that we really wanted to experience. We struck lucky with a Boondock at The Skunkworks Distillery where their moonshine is just divine! Hic! We bought general day passes and headed in, I had my cowgirl boots on, denim shorts, check shirt and hat, I looked a right sight! Just kidding, although there were plenty of folks who were dressed up, or maybe not, hard to tell really! Immediately knocked over by a Stetson we found our feet, did a line dance shimmy and explored. Being the final day it was packed. Outside the main arena were food stalls a plenty, stalls and a fairground. We liked the stables and petting area best (for the animals not each other!) Also three music stages, basically it was a melee!

Having seen tickets for the rodeo finals afternoon being sold for the $100’s we thought we’d see if there were any cheap seats and sure enough, tickets in hand we headed in. Not in the stands where we’d have taken tons of photo’s, but amongst the action, it was insane! Being chatted up by a First Nation bloke who’d had a few, while Nick was taking photo’s of boots, we had a giggle. We got to watch the heats and finals of; Bareback Rodeo (it’s the horse that’s bare not the rider) Barrel Racing (the only girl event) Tie Down Roping (poor cow/calf) Saddle Bronc, Steer Wrestling and the infamous Bull Rodeo. The Heavy Horse Pull was a much more sedate affair later! Not great photo’s (you may have to zoom to see hooves off the floor etc) but it was wild. We did marvel at the sheer stupidity/courage of all the riders and wonder why they take the risk, until we saw the prize money. It’ll make the Bath & West Show, next time we go, with its competition tents of cut flowers and neatly arranged ‘prize veg’ in threes on a paper plate, seem a tad underwhelming!

Anyhow, leaving the prairies and rolling hills and forests of Alberta, it’s now Rocky time and I don’t mean the film or the chocolate tray bake! We are ‘bear ready’ and until we buy a proper one, have stolen bells off Jigsaws toys, don’t tell her! The next blog may well be just a load of photos!