Horseshoe canyon, Drumheller, the Royal Tyrell Museum, and the Hoodoos.
I finally made it out here, even though it is only a 2 hour drive from Calgary, I is not really on the way to anyplace.
I am not really a big Dinosaur person, being more interested in civilizations, and interactions between peoples, and the circumstances around those interactions; however I can see the value of looking to the ancient past to see the origins of the features of our present. It is the latter period in time that interested me more where the oil and coal came from, how the badlands were formed and why they were “bad”. I make no excuses that for the fact that people interest me more than animals.
Unfortunately I forgot to charge my camera battery so I was only able to take one bad picture, the area really is a photographers dream (I should have take my brother Matt there while he was here instead of getting lost around Calgary). But at that time the wheat would not be near ripe for harvest all fluffy and white, nor the shoots the vivid green, the rust coloured weeds not standing dead in fields like a defiant blast of colour on the endless rolling plains of wheat. The sky, the magnificent prairie sky which fills my desire to watch the sea, with its layers of turbulent cloud, churning above the slow moving seabed that is the land. The hills coexisting with pools of ink black pools of shimmering life giving water like dark reminders of the oil that breaths the sustainability of this region.
I apologize for the flowery words but as I didn’t have my camera I had to make up something to indicate the breathtaking vastness that is part of the beauty of this place, lest I forget how truly small my existence is on this planet.
Horseshoe Canyon is that banded canyon that epitomizes the badlands, it is a eirie kind of place, but the cool kind of eire, like castle hill at home, it would be a great place to hang out in the moonlight, truly beautiful, like only mud and dirt can be. I think we forget the small ordinary things that can make up beauty. The Hoodoos are in the same class of coolness, but have the added notoriety of been claimed as deities, or beings of magic, but tourism has robbed them of much of their stature and mysticism.
Drumheller was larger than I expected, it had more amenities than I thought, but considering the amount of movies made in the picturesque badlands I guess it is not surprising. The tourism trade gears more towards families who are on vacation to see the Royal Tyrell Museum and the dinosaurs within and around the area. I thought it strange that the town is build within the canyon, not on the hilltops, as is usual for settlements. I supposed the original town preferred anonymity as a defense rather than fortification, but this is just a guess form too many western movies.
The Royal Tyrell museum is build for kids, but covers all aspects of archeology, so there is something of interest for everyone, I went on a guided walk of the Midland Provincial park, which among other things taught me where eatable clay came from, and its uses, and that the valley was formed by the river created by the melting of the receding glacier which accounts for its unique characteristics, the glacier was broad smoothing out the land around. I purchased some goodies for my too be cousins, as I know how much the love dinosaurs, and thy might get a kick out of the place where saber tooth tigers roamed.
I am not really a big Dinosaur person, being more interested in civilizations, and interactions between peoples, and the circumstances around those interactions; however I can see the value of looking to the ancient past to see the origins of the features of our present. It is the latter period in time that interested me more where the oil and coal came from, how the badlands were formed and why they were “bad”. I make no excuses that for the fact that people interest me more than animals.
Unfortunately I forgot to charge my camera battery so I was only able to take one bad picture, the area really is a photographers dream (I should have take my brother Matt there while he was here instead of getting lost around Calgary). But at that time the wheat would not be near ripe for harvest all fluffy and white, nor the shoots the vivid green, the rust coloured weeds not standing dead in fields like a defiant blast of colour on the endless rolling plains of wheat. The sky, the magnificent prairie sky which fills my desire to watch the sea, with its layers of turbulent cloud, churning above the slow moving seabed that is the land. The hills coexisting with pools of ink black pools of shimmering life giving water like dark reminders of the oil that breaths the sustainability of this region.
I apologize for the flowery words but as I didn’t have my camera I had to make up something to indicate the breathtaking vastness that is part of the beauty of this place, lest I forget how truly small my existence is on this planet.
Horseshoe Canyon is that banded canyon that epitomizes the badlands, it is a eirie kind of place, but the cool kind of eire, like castle hill at home, it would be a great place to hang out in the moonlight, truly beautiful, like only mud and dirt can be. I think we forget the small ordinary things that can make up beauty. The Hoodoos are in the same class of coolness, but have the added notoriety of been claimed as deities, or beings of magic, but tourism has robbed them of much of their stature and mysticism.
Drumheller was larger than I expected, it had more amenities than I thought, but considering the amount of movies made in the picturesque badlands I guess it is not surprising. The tourism trade gears more towards families who are on vacation to see the Royal Tyrell Museum and the dinosaurs within and around the area. I thought it strange that the town is build within the canyon, not on the hilltops, as is usual for settlements. I supposed the original town preferred anonymity as a defense rather than fortification, but this is just a guess form too many western movies.
The Royal Tyrell museum is build for kids, but covers all aspects of archeology, so there is something of interest for everyone, I went on a guided walk of the Midland Provincial park, which among other things taught me where eatable clay came from, and its uses, and that the valley was formed by the river created by the melting of the receding glacier which accounts for its unique characteristics, the glacier was broad smoothing out the land around. I purchased some goodies for my too be cousins, as I know how much the love dinosaurs, and thy might get a kick out of the place where saber tooth tigers roamed.