Badlands and Prairie Dogs

Zoe taking in the spectacular view of the badlands

Having now travelled across most of the breadth of Alberta from West to East on this trip, I can officially say that I have seen the Canadian Priairies now. For what it's worth, they aren't quite as tabletop-flat as I've heard them described to be, but close. 

We started our day bright and early with a quick hotel breakfast in Brooks before packing up the car and hitting the road for Dinosaur Provincial Park. Having unpacked and repacked several times on this trip I have to say I am getting scary good at it, to the point where each time we pack up we have slightly more excess space (despite the kids accumulating various souvenirs along the way), to the point where I worry we are missing something each time. 

Arriving somewhat ahead of schedule at Dinosaur Provincial Park, we stopped at the edge of the park to take in the view of the badlands.  It's amazing how they sneak up on you; after seeing (and driving through) miles and miles of relatively flat land as far as the eye can see, all of a sudden the earth drops away to reveal a bizarre landscape below comprised of oddly-shaped hills that have been shaped and eroded by water and wind for thousands of years. 

Looking out over the badlands from above 

Happy little adventurers 

Driving around the short one-way ring road through the park we arrived at the trailhead for the Centrosaurus Bonebed Hike, the one and only scheduled tour of the nature preserve for that day (Leslie had dutifully snagged us four of the last remaining spots two months beforehand). This was important because you're not allowed to access this area on your own (to make sure people aren't damaging/stealing dinosaur bones). 

We proceeded along the dusty and sandy trail, with our guide providing great context for what we were seeing around us. The badlands reach a depth of about 120m below "Prairie level", and the rock at this depth provides us with a cross-section spanning a timeframe from about 74-76 million years ago (for reference, dinosaurs were around in some form for a period of 165 million years in total). 

Funky cacti

We also learned about the three main types of rock we were seeing around us: the lighter colour was sandstone, and indicated places where there had previously been fast-moving water; the darker bands were "mudstone" and indicated slower-moving water like lakes; lastly, very dark reddish bands are "ironstone" (for obvious reasons). In fact, 75 million years ago the area we were in would have closely resembled the rainforest that we hiked in B.C. earlier in our trip. However, the most striking features were the "hoodoos" - places where a solid piece of ironstone served as a "cap" protecting the softer stone beneath it from erosion while neighbouring areas eroded away, leaving strange looking columns of sandy rock standing alone. 

Hoodoo!

Sandstone, mudstone, and ironstone

Our guide also walked us through how to properly identify fossils, and allowed us to inspect a few samples of petrified wood, a dinosaur tooth, and a cone from a metasequoia tree. 

Petrified wood

Tooth fossil

Eventually ~2km down the path we reached the ultimate destination for our short hike -  the famous "bone bed" where the fossilized remains of dozens of Centrosauruses could be found all over - some embedded in the surface of the ground, some lying loose on top, and some even protruding from the side of the rock. It was pretty surreal being able to reach out and touch something that walked the earth 75 million years ago. The kids had a blast wandering the area and finding all sorts of fossils (and who am I kidding, me too). 

Look what Zoe found 

Little bean finding things

All in all it was an incredibly unique experience!

This being said, we opted to keep this a "light" day on our trip since it was clear that a couple weeks of busy days and short nights were taking their toll on the kids. We stopped for a tasty lunch at the quaint Prairie Girl Diner in Cessford, AB. 

After lunch we had a ~2h drive to Drumheller.  Along the way, sharp-eyed Leslie spotted a Prairie dog up on his hind legs at the side of the highway surveying his surroundings, and from that point onwards we spotted several more. 

After we reached Drumheller we let the kids play in the hotel pool (with a big waterslide), and then went out for a delicious dinner at the nearby Pho Dinosaur. The pho was ok but the artwork was top-notch. 

Tomorrow marks the final day of our trip before heading home on Tuesday.  Unlike previous trips I was very hands-off in the planning of this one, and I have to give Leslie major kudos for laying out such a fun and adventurous 2+ weeks for us. It's been amazing getting a taste of western Canada, and doing it via a wide range of activities including kayaking, hiking in rainforests,  rafting on glacier-fed rivers, hiking in the Rockies, and exploring the badlands. We will have some great memories from this trip.  :)