Dinosaur Trail

After leaving the Royal Tyrrell, we headed north on the Dinosaur Trail to see landscapes of all types. Around the museum, we were still within the valley in which Drumheller sits, carved by the Red Deer River. But as the road rose, we passed Horsethief Canyon, an impressive overlook leading down into the Badlands.

You can see from the photos how far this area stretched. It never ceased to amaze me how the small puffy clouds always seemed to stretch on endlessly over the wide blue sky.

Many kids were hiking down into the canyon. It looked a bit too steep for easy exploring, but if I had more time, I would have been tempted to go down in search of the river at the bottom. I just know there were tons of fossils waiting to be found down there.

Back on the road, we continued uphill until we hit the prairie. Large swathes were covered in green. I wish I knew what the plants were; I know some were clover, some were golden with rape (Canola), but others were wonderfully green (perhaps early rape, but I'm not sure). There were also very frequent oil derricks!

Coming down the other side of the Dinosaur Trail (headed south) we passed the opposite edge of Horsethief Canyon, where we could see the river. The people in rafts floating downstream looked to be enjoying themselves.

However, before we reached this point, we had to cross from one side of the Dinosaur Trail to the other, across the river. We accomplished this by taking the Bleriot Ferry. The ferry was like entering another era, where time moved at a snail's pace. It was very efficient and timely, but by the time we hit mid-river, I had to get out of the car to appreciate the clouds reflecting in the river.

The road back to Drumheller passed one of the best icons of prairie Alberta, a large grain silo.