Road Trip 2022 – Bones to the Bad- Episode 2

Today we fully expect to answer the question “How bad does it have to be to be bad?” First we will have to find something that has been declared bad. “Having a bad hair day” was not in my cards so we have decided to head to Alberta and a return trip to the town of Drumheller, home of the Royal Tyrrell Museum and some prehistoric dinosaur bones. We had never really planned to return but since we were so close, curiosity got the better of us. The museum is located in the middle of the Alberta Badlands.  So we decided to find out what makes the Badlands bad. We are not sure what year we visited Drumheller previously but it was shortly after we dropped our youngest son off at University in 1999.

 Photo from 1999ish.

An early departure from Field gave us the opportunity for a quick visit to Banff.  Our last visit was in 1990 with our teenaged kids. Much has changed. Then we sprang for a one night budget breaking stay in the Banff Springs Hotel. Not sure what we paid but current room rates are in excess of $1,100. We fed the kids pizza and a movie in the room while we went out to a highly advertised and expensive fondue restaurant. The cheese dip may have “gone bad” as it left a very “bad taste in our mouth”.  Despite our bad review, the restaurant is one of the few places from the 90’s that is still standing in downtown Banff.

We found Drumheller littered with dinosaurs

Very friendly and social dinosaurs. 

Perhaps too friendly! 

It's also home to the world’s largest, walk up dinosaur. 

This “bad boy” stands over 26 metres high, 46 metres in length and weighs in at 66,000 kilograms. 

It provides a great view of Drumheller from its gaping tooth filled mouth if you can get past the "bad breath". Opened in 2001, it has ingested over 2,000,000 visitors.

The museum is home to a diverse collection of fossils recovered from around Alberta and BC as well as examples from around the world. Over 30 full size dinosaurs have been re-created  using fossilized dinosaur remains found from the areas close by.

 

Over 65,000,000 years of history has been crammed into its 4,400 metres of display space. The most famous of course is Tyrannosaurus Rex or T-Rex to his friends. He was known to have a very "bad attitude".

They even have some fossilized dinosaur shit on display. I guess cavemen hadn't got around to inventing dinosaur pooh bags yet. 

 

The museum spit us out 3 hours later overloaded by way too much paleontology.. Our next destination was a hike down into Horsethief Canyon and an introduction to the Badlands. Sadly I took a “bad turn” and drove 30 kilometres in the wrong direction.

 

It wasn’t wasted as we ending up driving by the access road to the Hoodoos site which was to be our next destination after Horsethief Canyon. Perhaps our “bad luck” was turning around.

 

A hoodoo (also called a tent rock, fairy chimney, or earth pyramid) is a tall, thin spire of rock formed by erosion. Hoodoos typically consist of relatively soft rock topped by harder, less easily eroded stone that protects each column from the elements. They generally form within sedimentary rock and volcanic rock formations. 

“Wikipedia/Hoodoos”

 

There was no “bad information” from our gps Naggedy Anne who got us to the canyon with out any further deviations. The Badlands kind of sneak up on you. They are found in deep ravines which cannot be seen till you are right on top of them. They were created by meltwater from the retreat of the Laurentide glacier around 13,000 years ago.

 

Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded.^[1] They are characterized by steep slopes, minimal vegetation, lack of a substantial regolith, and high drainage density.^[2] Ravines, gullies, buttes, hoodoos and other such geologic forms are common in badlands.

“Wikipedia/Badlands”

 

It was a short 5 kilometre hike through the many ravines that form the canyon. Occasional short bursts of sun interspersed with dark blobs of rain cloud filling the sky kept things moving. The Badlands are interesting but they do not provide much variety of terrain with one ravine looking much like the other.

 

So how would we would rate the Badlands. We decided that they "ain't half bad”.  Sort of like listening to bagpipes, very enjoyable for the first 10 minutes or so but then you just want them to stop.  

Back at the hotel, tired and grumpy Nonie got into it with a local. But saner heads  prevailed and they parted with no "bad blood".