Drumheller is located east of Calgary in "the Dinosaur Valley" and is home to the World's Largest Dinosaur. It's made out of fiberglass.
We left bright and early as always, and drove for a while. Unlike the drive to the mountains... this one is not as scenic. In fact... it was flat and under construction. Once there, we had breakfast at Whiff's flapjacks house (a small hole in a motel). There aren't a lot of restaurants there, and yelp either recommended this or a chinese food place (most likely not run by chinese people). The breakfast was decent, enough to get me through the day.
First stop was Horsethief Canyon. I imagined it to be more spectacular. Don't get me wrong. It was pretty...but not WOW like the grand canyon. Also, being attacked by mosquitoes did not make me happy.
Our next stop was someplace where no bugs would be. We decided to go to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. It reminded me a lot like the ROM in Toronto. What was cool was that they had their own excavation lab there.
From there we took a little rock around the outside facilities. We walked fast to stop the mosquitoes from sucking us dry. I also secretly was on a hunt for a fossil of my own. It's illegal to take anything home with you, as it is an official dinosaur provincial park...but a girl can dream.
After that we headed to the world's largest dinosaur. $3 for admission. Pricey to go up 4 flights of stairs to the mouth of a dinosaur. That was it. But at least I can say I did it. Also, look how big its foot is!
We were tired by then so we walked across the street to go grab some ice cream. We sat on a nearby bench and watched the neighborhood kids play in the sprinklers. Yeah... I can see how this sounds creepy.
We wanted to stop off at the old coal mines (this was a town based on mining back in the day), but they were about to close in 1hr. I was looking forward to it too because they actually have a tour where they take you into the mines! Oh well...next time? So instead we headed to the Hoodoos nearby. Kinda neat formations, eh? According to Wiki, "A hoodoo (also called a tent rock, fairy chimney, and earth pyramid) is a tall, thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badland. Hoodoos consist of soft sedimentary rock topped by harder, less easily-eroded stone that protects each column from the elements." They told us not to climb on the hoodoos... but realistically everyone was doing it.
After we were done with that we drove to the Rosedale Suspension bridge. It's also known as the Star Mine Suspension bridge used for crossing Red Deer River to get to the coal mine. Built in 1931, this pedestrian bridge is 117m long.
We were told by the flapjacks place in the morning that we should stop off at Last Chance Saloon. We'd never been to a Saloon before, and the drive there was unique. We crossed what are called the Wayne Bridges. Crossing eleven bridges in 6 kilometres and discovering the hamlet of Wayne - population 27. Once home to thousands of coal miners and residents who worked in support of this industry, now home to 27. That's right, in the 1930s the depression hit, and the coal industry died. Can you say ghost town? Anyways, in the Saloon, it had everything in there. There were so many random things handing on the walls and ceilings. It even had a gun hole through the wall! That's really western, *Bang Bang Bang*
After that we decided to head home. This was only supposed to be a short day trip and it was getting late. But before we left, we stopped off at one last spot. Horseshoe Canyon. This was supposed to be the better of the two. Unfortunately it rained the day before. The waitress at the breakfast place had warned me that hiking is not recommended as the clay could give out and slide under you at anytime. Meh, I saw it. That's that.
Final thought: Is it really worth it to drive 2 hours to the middle of no where to see the coal mines again? Maybe not...maybe in 20 years...
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