Today Paul took us to Drumheller, an hour and a half away. This was the view entering the city:
Bucket List: The Royal Tyrell Museum, otherwise known as the Dinosaur Museum! It is Canada's only museum devoted entirely to palaeontology, and one of the largest of its kind in the world. It is a lot larger than we expected at 121,000 square feet.
A lot of the exhibits were actual originals, which was really cool.
Most of the fossils in this area were found by accident. Road widenings, mining, basement excavations. They actually have paleontologists supervising construction.
Exit through the gift shop. Unfortunately, the dinosaur slippers were too large for Frankie:
Along with the indoor exhibits, there is a self-guided 1.4 km loop trail called the Badlands Interpretive Trail behind the museum. What are badlands? It is very dry terrain of softer sedimentary rocks and clay soil that has been eroded by wind and water, with minimal vegetation. In the early 1900's, French Canadian fur trappers called it "les mauvais terres pour traverse" or "bad lands to travel through."
We really enjoyed it and took our time. Most of the time Paul sat and waited for us.
These are hoodoos. What is a hoodoo? It is a tall thin rock spire made of soft sandstone that does not erode because it is covered with a dense rock on top.
There is cactus in Alberta:
On our way out, we stopped here. This is the World's Largest Dinosaur: a model of a t-rex that is 4.5 times bigger than a real t-rex. You can climb 106 stairs to the the dinosaur's mouth to get a view of Drumheller. We didn't bother.
On our way out of town, we stopped at the Star Mine Suspension Bridge, originally built in 1931.
It crosses the Red Deer River.
We took the back roads back to Rosemary, and had to cross the Finnegan Ferry. Anton had to ring the bell so the guy inside his house knew we needed to cross:
He said we were his second crossing today. Busy guy.
When we got back to Rosemary, the 2 of us explored the small cemetery where we found 2 Epps. Then we bought Paul an oven mitt at the General Store.
I would love to go to Drumheller.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous scenery and, you bought Paul an oven mitt? did you or he burn his?