Alberta, Canada travel series: Roaming around Drumheller

Apple Maps depiction of the location and distance between Calgary and Drumheller at Alberta, Canada

We woke up early to get a good start.  It was our first day at Calgary and we were hoping that we could get the most out of four days of an impromptu vacation.  I had read and always looked at pictures of the famed Banff National Park with its towering mountains and magnificent lakes, Jasper National park with the colossal glacier, and the surrounding Alberta area. I hoped that we will be able to get glimpses of those magnificent sites.

“Breakaway” by Robert Keith Spaith. The statue of five horses at the lobby of Calgary International Airport.

The plane was on time and the flight was just slightly bumpy from the turbulence.  Fall has come and the temperature at Calgary International Airport was kept at a comfortable level despite the chilly bite outside.  Oh, I forgot, chilly for me but not to those who live around here.  This was still normal for them.

I was given the chance to drive on the way to Drumheller.  It required two vehicles for all of us hence I was able to experience seeing the countryside during the drive.  It reminded me of Kansas.  I don’t know why but I felt like I was driving through Kansas while I was looking at the brown, shortly-cropped, rolling fields on both sides.  Traffic was light but the speed was so, so slow.  I guess I’m used to driving the faster speed limit of Texas.  The good thing was that I was afforded a more relaxed driving experience with the occasional side glances of the scenery.

Horseshoe Canyon looked like a scene straight out of a sci-fi movie.  It is part of the Canadian Badlands in the province of Alberta, Canada.  Immediately in front were several small, eroded hills devoid of any vegetation.  The soil looked crumbly and erosion streaks ran from top to bottom giving the impression of running water creating the furrows.  The bottom looked flat and muddy from a distance but I was able to observe two persons walking and taking pictures.  Perhaps, it was not as muddy as I perceived. At a distance, the grass prairie can still be seen with the naked eye.  This time, the scene reminded me of the Chocolate Hills in the Bohol province of the Philippines.  The stark contrast between the green, rolling hills of Bohol, Philippines and the scarred, arid wasteland of the Canadian Badlands was remarkable.

Apparently, the area was already well-known for its rich deposit of dinosaur bones.  I saw at regular intervals businesses and establishments whose names made reference to dinosaurs.  One attraction even featured a humongous dinosaur structure where one can climb to the very top and see a sky view of the area from the dinosaur’s mouth!

I thought the Royal Tyrrell Museum was very impressive!  I had been to several museums where dinosaur bones were displayed but this museum’s collection of dinosaur bones was extensive and was well documented!  I saw people of all ages wandering around and I thought the adults were more immersed in the experience than the kids!

The river at Horsethief Canyon. Horsethief Canyon – named after the illegal horse trading that occurred during the last century.
Horsethief Canyon.

Horsethief Canyon was wide as it was long.  We parked and walked to the observation point and saw its expanse.  The area was massive that my head had to turn one hundred eighty degrees just to see it.  The details of the canyon showed the familiar eroded hills, the rolling grass prairie, a river with the colorful fall foliage at its banks, a highway on the far side, and the rocky ledge from our observation point.

The hoodoos

The next stop of roaming around Drumheller brought us to the Hoodoos.  Limestone and sand formation that rise to an average of twenty feet and was thought of to have been formed by wind and water forces.  The formation is common to the North American Badlands.  Further reading though mentions that this formation can be found in other places too like China and Europe.

The end of the day brought us back to Calgary.  We covered a lot of ground and saw a lot of things.  I am just now reviewing where we were and what we saw.  A lot of things learned and a lot of amazing sights seen.  Tomorrow we go to Banff!

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