DRUMHELLER

As one drives northward from the Trans-Canada Highway towards Drumheller, the landscape is fairly similar to that of the prairies. So it may come as a wee bit of a shock when the road suddenly begins to wind downward into the canyon containing the Red Deer River and Drumheller. [Please use the map of the Drumheller District if you need it. Viewers may also click on the map of Alberta to follow our trip.]

We arrived late at night on July 5 before our reservation at the Dinosaur Motel, but the office found emergency accommodation nearby. In the morning of July 6, we drove to Calgary and saw the Stampede Parade (arranging to attend the Stampede five days later). We had time after our return to Drumheller for a fast trip around the "Dinosaur Trail".
On the morning of July 7th, we drove to the Little White Church and Fox Coulee with a general side excursion to Munson . . . then further north to a picnic area at Morrin Bridge. Further sightseeing to the southeast led us back past Drumheller to the hoodoos and petrified tree stumps near East Coulee.

In the morning of July 8th, we visited the "Prehistoric Park" east of Newcastle, drove once more to Munson and had lunch near the Bleriot Ferry after crossing the Red Deer River. Then we scouted some coulees before returning to our motel for a walk to the swinging bridge at Rosedale (once used by miners going to and from work at the mine across the river). That afternoon, we drove three or four coulees up Dorothy Road beside Willow Creek to see more petrified trunks and hoodoos before having supper at a covered campsite. [These campsites are stocked with wood and kindling for the stoves, and we were very impressed by the cleanliness.]

On the 9th we drove to locate volcanic tuff past the Tollman Bridge, and did some general house-cleaning in the afternoon when it started to drizzle. It continued to rain on July 10th, but we shopped, swam and did some local sightseeing at the Prehistoric Park and the Newcastle Coal Miners' Museum. On July 12th we travelled to the Little White Church (which seats 10,000 persons ... six at a time), Fox Coulee and Morrin Bridge, but returned to the Homestead Museum after supper. On July 13th, we drove to Berry Creek looking for baculite fossils, and Jenn found one in a field just as we were leaving the site; we took in the museum at Hanna before returning to the motel. After window shopping in the morning, we searched for fossil oysters at Little Fish Lake and revisited East Coulee. July 15th was spent on the south and north sides at Morrin Bridge searching the coulees on the east bank of the Red Deer River. On July 16th we trekked around the hoodoos across from Newcastle . . . and Rob discovered 3 feet of an exposed dinosaur bone in the side of a cliff. A day at the Calgary Zoo was followed by a fruitless fossil search at the Bow River near the Indian reserve. On the 19th, we took some time for house-cleaning and packing. [Did we miss July 11th? No, that was the day we went to the Calgary Stampede . . . and those photos are next.]