Day 41 Drumheller

Today was our last official day before the trip home begins. It was kind of a funny day because the weather was not great, and Jonathan and Jenna left for Red Deer to visit with Jenna’s cousin and his family on their dairy farm. David and I set out without too much intention, other than to explore the area. We decided to start with the hoodoo hike on the opposite side of Drumheller. We found it without much problem, but while we enjoyed the cool geographic features of these - towers of soft rock topped with harder stone, that helps protect them from erosion, I was a bit surprised with them being billed as the best site for viewing hoodoos. We have seen hoodoos before in the Dakotas, and they seemed far more plentiful and less commercial. The area was very busy today with people behaving poorly. It is difficult to enjoy a time looking at incredible natural formations while people next to you are carving their names with sticks into eroding rocks! We did our best to enjoy the time there, be patient and wait to take pictures, but we left before too much time had passed.

The hoodoos. First time I saw a hoodoo, was the first time I realized, that's where the Flintstones lived!

Bentonite clay is formed from volcanic ash. It looks like greyish popcorn but any amount of water causes it to swell and become very slippery.

The area surrounding the hoodoos

The black stratifications are coal seams.

It's like I imagine the surface of the moon!

Following that experience, we decided to drive until something caught our eye! Our favourite times on the road have been off the beaten track, so following a tip from Jenna’s dad, when we saw a sign for the Last Chance Saloon, we took the turn. It was established in 1913, and let me tell you, it looked like it! It was closed on Monday, as so many things are in the west, so while the destination itself wasn’t much, the 6.5km trip down the dead-end road was certainly worth trip. At the beginning of the road we saw a sign that said Eleven Bridges. We thought that might be the name of a place? Turns out it was a notice of what we were about to do. The Rosebud River weaves itself with the road creating the need for eleven bridges along this short stretch of road, approximately every 600m! We weave our way between the hills, and over the river to arrive at the town of Wayne. Wayne was a coal mining town in the 1940s and the welcome sign informs us that the population then was 2,490 and is now 35. It was fun to just wander and explore, even if we couldn’t wet our whistle!

 The train in front of the sign is the train that would take miners to the mine (last car) and the open box cars would bring coal back.

This is the inside of that first engine car. Still has the original batteries, sitting there open since the 1940's 😲 Seems ill-advised!

We then headed into Drumheller to stop and have a walk around the town. Again, with most things closed on Monday the downtown was quiet. The people we did meet were very friendly and we chatted about the weather and checked out more carefully what we had noticed last night on our drive through town. This town is built on dinosaur appeal, but to be fair, it is cleverly woven into most everything in town! 

This guy makes the Visitor Centre parking lot - not sure he looks welcoming!

Foot prints along the downtown sidewalks.

Some are cute and whimsical.

Some are a little less whimsical! This guy was at the top of a store front. The sore window had a sign that notified us all that there has not actually been a velociraptor attack in 5 days!

This guy was tearing the shingles off the roof!

This guy was ripping open the beer can at the top of the brewery.

A hoodoo loo! I thought there should have been a sign saying as much 😉

Guys on the roof. Guys breaking out of the upstairs window. The funniest part though was the byline on the Tech-Rex sign... Keeping your dinosaur computer alive since the ice age.

I will stop now, but this isn't even a fraction of the dinosaurs hanging out on every street corner and business front.

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Tyrannosaurus Rest

This Drumheller's Little Church. Designed in 1958, is was built and is maintained by the town. The 11 X 7 foot building is intended as a place of worship. The sign says, seats 10,000 people, 6 at a time.

When Jonathan and Jenna came back, we shared stories of our respective days and learned all about dairy farming in Alberta. It’s interesting to hear stories of a life you know nothing about! It sounded like they had a wonderful day as well.