A Good Day in the Badlands

13^thSeptember 2019

Well rested in Calgary, today’s plan is a little uncertain. After studying the options we decided that we really didn’t want to spend the day wandering around a city, so are attracted to a day trip to the Badlands instead.

Centered around the town of Drumheller (about 140 km NE of Calgary), the Badlands look like they came straight of a John Wayne western. After driving for about 1.5 hours across flat plains that are heavily farmed producing grain and hay, you eventually enter this valley that is a totally different landscape.

Typical landscape once we left Calgary

 Once an important coal mining area, it is now famous for it’s landscape, and the amazing discoveries made by the coal miners as they started digging up fossils and dinosaur skeletons.

Our first stop was the local information centre, easy to find as it is located under the giant dinosaur statue. 

It is hard to miss the tourist information centre

The lady there was fantastic. Before we knew it, we had our whole day mapped out, and were not sure we had enough time to get it all done. Armed with our map, all we needed was a good cup of coffee (up till now we haven’t found one), and a snack for breakfast. The lady at the information centre recommended a nearby café, which turned out to be a great choice. I actually enjoyed my coffee (first time in Canada).

The wealth of fossil and dinosaur discoveries here far outweighs anything I have seen elsewhere, and a very large museum (Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology ), has been erected to display the amazing finds from here and around the World. It made the drive out here worthwhile, without seeing anything else.

Here is a sample of some of the exhibits.

A fossilised shell found in Alberta

Laboratory where restoration work takes place

This Fossil of dead fish came from Canowindra NSW. Just goes to show that waterholes used to dry in the Devonian Period, well before Dinosaurs

And a sobering message at the exit from the museum

We spent the best part of an hour in the museum (could have easily been 3 times that but we were conscious of completing our program). Next stop was a little Church that had been built by the early settlers. It could only seat 6 people at a time.

Moving on we went to The Horse Thief Canyon Lookout, which gave great views of the valley and formations carved out over time by the Red Deer River.

one of the locals paying little attention to the tourists

Now we need to cross over the river, and the only way to do that on this road is to use the Bleriot Ferry. A tiny ferry that still takes all manner of vehicles (excluding lorries) across the river free of charge. We did not have to wait long before the ferry had returned to our side and loaded us on board, not long after another car arrived. The ferry master had a pretty good ear and could hear something else coming down the road some distance away, so decided to wait. He loved a chat and was in no hurry. A large piece of agricultural equipment eventually came around the corner. He reorganized us and the other car sso he could fit him on, and we were off to the other side. In the meantime we had learned his life history including the fact he had a brother living in Perth.

Once over the river, it was off to another lookout, the Orkney Viewpoint. This gave great view of the Red Deer River.

The trail then took us back through Drumheller to the ghost town of Wayne, where in 1913 there were 3000 residents and now there are 30. Getting to Wayne takes you along a road which has 11 bridges in the space of around 6 km, enough to get them in the Guinness Book of Records. Whilst the town has few residents, the Rosedeer Hotel was on fire. The pub restaurant “The Last Chance Saloon” was packed, and it was a good choice for lunch. Once again recommended by the visitors centre.

By now it is around 2.30 pm, and we still have 2 more highlights to see. So back on the road, we head for the suspension bridge at Rosedale. The bridge was built by the Star Mining Company, a pioneering coal miner, to gain access to their mine on the northern bank of the river. We walked across and back, and by now our previously fine day was beginning to show signs of deteriorating weather, with a stiff cool breeze blowing up the river valley.

Finally, we had to see the Hoodoos, only another 5 km away, we reached the hoodoo carpark, and wandered across the road to see these unusual formations.

It was time to go back to Calgary, as ith will take us at least 1.5 hours, but we should get back to our hotel just before 5pm.

The traffic was OK as we approached Calgary, so we were parked outside our hotel by 4.45pm.

We wandered around town looking for a suitable dinner venue and ended up in Chinatown having a quite acceptable Chinese meal.