Destination: Dinosaur Provincial Park
Minds: Blown
We stopped in Medicine Hat looking for a place to stretch our legs and grab a sweet treat and some caffeine for the driver. Serious shout out for the Visitor's Centre employees who loaded us with stories, advice and brochures. They had all the COVID precautions in place as we would have expected, i.e. plexiglass, distancing stickers, sanitizer and all that.
The largest teepee in the world is Teepee from the 1988 Calgary Olympics, relocated to Medicine Hat. The artwork is beautiful, the stories are specific, and the landscape is so so different than Ontario. This was our first exposure to Coulees (deep valleys that were carved by massive amounts of glacial water). The term coulees comes from a French word meaning flow because it was where the water flowed. We found these fascinating land forms because it felt like we were walking along the prairies and then all of a sudden the land drops into a deep valley with very different plant life and tons of birds. As we climbed back out of the coulee closest to the teepee, Con thought it would be hilarious to tickle me and poke at me. To teach him a lesson, I tackled him down to the ground and flattened him every time! Little did we know there were little cacti all over the edges of the path. We learned they had hair-like spikes that are sharp and itchy. Oops! Sorry Con.
We were directed to a local coffee shop not far from the South Saskatchewan River. As we got out of the car, we all put our masks on as we were accustomed to, and walked over to grab some hot chocolates/coffee/latte and a cinnamon bun. They have had no cases in Medicine Hat, so masks are not mandatory, nor are there occupancy restrictions. It felt like we had jumped back to February! Being from away, we are feeling extra responsibility to use all the recommended precautions, so we got our drinks to go and explored the riverside. Delicious treats and a few cool retired train engines. We all kept imagining the west before the train...
Brooks, Alberta was home for the night as we got super excited to see DINOSAURS the next day. We had booked 3 nights of camping at Dinosaur Provincial Park and decided to cancel when the weather forecast was for -15 at night. We are tough, but maybe not that tough. The hotel pool was open and the kids were absolutely thrilled to have it all to themselves (and it helped with the cactus spikes too!). At this point, Kai claimed this Days Inn as his favourite hotel because of the pool and the pull out couch. The pancake/omelette breakfast was pretty sweet too, all COVID measures in place including mandatory masks in the building.
Now, we drove out to Dinosaur Provincial Park and pulled into the top viewpoint and all our jaws dropped and we had to catch our breath. Looking out over the park was unexpected beauty. The depths and sedimentation lines were otherworldly and like nothing we had ever seen before. Then we drove down into the park... checked out the visitors centre and did our first hike. You will have to come here if you haven't yet. The view invokes an awe that I also feel when I'm looking at the mountains or Lake Superior. I will let the photos speak for themselves.
Kai says it is important for you to know that there is a Minecraft realm created to represent the Badlands where you can mine for iron ore and dig for dinosaur bones digitally. You can also book campsites for your Minecraft Video Game self. Unfortunately, it is not built for the iPad app.
We booked a guided tour in this park because it was a major destination for us and we wanted to know more. We drove up to meet our guide and she told us to get back in the car and follow her through the gate and down the road about a kilometre... we were the only ones scheduled for the hike! Thank you again off-season travel and COVID-19. Anyway, Fiona had worked at the park for 4 years and walked us along a trail explaining the land formations, the Blackfoot history in the area, and of course the dinosaurs. We stopped and she showed us how to tell if the rock on the ground was "just a rock" or a fossilized dinosaur bone. What!?! Con immediately started spotting dinosaur fossils along the trail, the edges of the trail, etc. Kai loved the iron ore, but everytime asked if it was a dinosaur bone. By the middle of the hike, we could all find a vertebrae or a broken bone piece easily by the pores or the lichen that grew almost exclusively on bone in the park. This was not just for kids: Ben and I were equally in awe from holding a 75 million year old bone in our hands.
Con: One time when Fiona said, “Look around and see if you can see my favourite dinosaur fossil in the park.” We all looked around and crazily we couldn’t see it at first. Then dad said, “Oh my goodness,” and he pointed. We all looked and it was a huge femur that was about the same size as Kai. It was spectacular!
Kai: At Dinosuar Provincial Park, they say if you throw your hat, you cannot not land it on a dinosaur bone. Fiona told us that if you lick your finger and hold it to a rock, a dinosaur bone with stick to it.
Next stop: Drumheller, the Dinosaur Capital of the World
We did so much in this town, all related to the dinosaurs. Millions of years ago, the tropical forest was home to loads of dinosaurs. When the environmental conditions shifted drastically, it also provided the best environment for bones and trees to fossilize. We spent a few hours in the Royal Tyrell Museum… all about dinosaurs and timelines of the changing Earth. It was a little bit of information overload, but we all picked up some new bits of information.
Kai: We went to a dinosaur museum and the front room had big dinosaurs. There was sound in there that went “Roar, ERRNR, HAUNN,” (and other sounds that were difficult to phoneticize), and I thought that it would scare little kids.
Con: I remember the really big dinosaur that took up the whole room. They didn’t have all of it. It was the world’s largest sea dinosaur.
Ben: I was really amazed at how many dinosaurs were found through mineral exploration.
Christy: We watched some of the paleontologists at work, scraping and brushing and revealing skeletons. It takes years of detailed labour for each of the fossils we see in the museum. The region was opened up by “Dinosaur Hunters” much like the West for gold mining.
The town has definitely embraced their reputation by the names of their streets, the dinosaur statues on every corner and at every business. We had a blast taking pictures with each one, but the most significant was the trip up inside the World’s Biggest Dinosaur! Con counted the 106 steps to the mouth lookout.
This area has developed hikes and driving tours, and we did most of them because we could. The Hoodoo Hike was short, but highlighted some very defined landforms and the kids are now well versed in capstone and sandstone relationships. The coal mining used to be booming and one particular drive, between Rosedale and Wayne built the most bridges in the shortest distance claiming the Guinness Book of World Record. We counted each of the 11 bridges (homeschooling: check).
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