Ken Cross in Canada 2012 - birds, nature & birds: Drumheller and the Prairies - 18

Little Millie on the Prairies

not Godzilla?

Today we drove east from the Rockies and onto the prairies, past the sprawling metropolis of Calgary and to the small badland town of Drumheller.

The badlands are beautifully eroded ancient sedimentary rock that are bad for farming but good, it turns out, for revealing the fossils of dinosaurs and other ancient reptiles from millions of years previous. In striking contrast with what has happened else where it was wisely decided that the museum to house these discoveries and to interpret this fascinating history should be located here, in-situ , and not in a faraway capital city. And so the Royall Tyrell Dinosaur Museum was born and a great museum it is too dedicated to telling the natural history of life in the area of Canada from the very first aquatic life revealed in the Burgess Shale from BC to the dinosaurs and aquatic reptiles from much later time periods revealed in a variety of sediments throughout Alberta and BC.

Driving into Drumheller

Millie and Matt at Museum

Least Chipmunk at our campground

The museum was large and grand and intimidating. I often get frustrated that the museum doesn’t appear in book form also so that I can read or re-read the information panels with the appropriate illustrations later . It is impossible to visit any decent museum without experiencing information overload. The kids rated the experience too.

We were here to see the museum but the charms of Drumheller kept us here a little longer.

The town of Drumheller is a little dinosaur crazy – in a good way - and dinosaurs of varying descriptions dot its roadsides and, in some cases dominate its skyline. As well as the museum the town boasts, if this is the right word, the largest dinosaur in the world - a carnivorous dinosaur that towers above the highest buildings. You can climb into it and check the view from the creature’s mouth. I thought it was all a little too cheezy and reneged however the rest of the crew wandered up.

yb sapsucker

The badland scenery is, to my eyes, beautiful. And like Uluru of central Australia the scene changes remarkably with the changes in light throughout the day and, I imagine the year. This country undergoes such a radical change in climate. Today was 30 degrees plus and as we crossed a small river ferry the guy running it admitted to us that in winter it often slips below 30 degrees below , freezing the river that we were crossing solid such that farming folks just drive across the ice, assuming that the snow drifts are not too thick.

We visited Horse Thief Canyon , a secretive steep sided place whose naming origins can easily be guessed.

cool shadows

We saw Horse shoe Canyon also. We visited the ‘Last Chance Saloon’ at the small town of Wayne, where one of the claim-to-fames was a beer drinking horse that used to frequent the bar. The bar served beer in old jam jars and had authentic bullet holes in the wall. We also visited another local piece of geology – The Hoodoos. We played the Hoodoo gurus on the way there. Hoodoos are little Masas or buttes, Rock formations with a more resistant capping material than the supporting sedimentary rock which has clearly eroded more easily and quickly.

We stayed longer in Drumheller than we had originally planned by virtue of a play that was being preformed. The greatest story ever told, The Passion. The story of Christ played out in grand style among the canyons of Drumheller. The play is performed here annually with 7 or so performances and our visit coincided with them. Megan went to a performance and insisted that I take Tom the following evening. It was interesting to see the show, performed as it was in a great natural setting that was clearly evocative of the Middle East. The cast was in the hundreds and had horses and other livestock easily accommodated by the large set. I quite enjoyed the play as a spectacle however I was a little disappointed by the omission of the Sermon on the Mount. Megan claimed, that that was because that did not happen in the book of John, the gospel on which the play was based. Ok. During the production I saw a falcon dash across the sky probably a Merlin and, at one point, a Turkey Vulture, no doubt attracted by the Crucifixion.

Horse Thief Canyon

More Badlands

Speaking of mortality we experienced a hell of a storm in Drumheller. Lightening, thunder, wind, rain and huge hail – a storm, appropriately enough on a biblical scale. It occurred after my viewing of the performance and I had returned the ten km into town to get some medicine for Millie who was experiencing high temperatures. I had just left the town and the storm hit.; rain for a few seconds and then the wind gusts and then the first percussions from the hail stones. I had to get the car off the road and parked as close as I dared to a large building, hoping that that would absorb much of the assault.

We sheltered in the car for about half an hour as the storm raged and only after the last of the wind we crawled back into the tent to sleep. Exciting stuff.

We stayed at a camping ground about 10km out of town and it was worth it. The grounds were well treed and, more importantly held a swimming pool which we all enjoyed. Mille got a little too excited at one point and launched herself at me, misjudged and her head collided with mine; her teeth smashing into my left cheek bone causing, to her clear shock, blood to begin flowing down my face. Thankfully it didn’t need stitching.

The campground had Cottontails everywhere, rabbits if you will. A plague of them. I was hoping for hawks but saw few. One sight in the park that amused me was this long haired guy, tats with a black T-shirt that boasted with blood and bones, 'Anarchy forever' with his mobile phone poised, patiently following a little black bunny rabbit for a picture.