Canada Hols - Jasper National Park

On Friday morning we went to the Hinton Beaver Boardwalk, which was really interesting. The beaver had created several levels of dams, and had a huge lodge in the centre. It was only 80km to Jasper National Park, but the lovely mountains & lakes meant quite a few stops for photos, so it took a while to get there. We were shocked at having to buy a yearly pass at $136 to get in. Pretty Maligne Canyon is eroded into limestone, and has lots of lovely fossils. We also checked out Edith Lake which looked idyllic in this beautiful weather. We checked into our accommodation, Maligne Lodge, then drove up to try out the Jasper Tramway, but decided that it was too late in the afternoon to go, so went to Patricia and Pyramid Lakes. Pyramid Lake has a little island with a wooden walking bridge across to it. While on the island we saw a waterspout on the lake. Apart from all the people also enjoying the island was a red squirrel. It was a very relaxing way to spend the afternoon.

Canada Hols - North of Calgary to Hinton

Because of the floods, we had changed our plans of driving up to the Canadian Rockies through Banff (the road had only just opened through Canmore), and on Thursday morning headed north to Innisfail where we had morning tea and lunch (in a lovely octagonal picnic shelter. Other towns we passed through were Rocky Mountain House and Drayton Valley. There were very long straight roads. There were deer crossings, and at one stage we saw a dead deer. At another point a fox crossed the road in front of us. There were Pumping Jacks (pumping oil & gas) right in the middle of farmlands & pine forests. We stayed overnight at Hinton in the Athabasca Inn & Suites, which was off the main road, quiet & comfortable. In the evening we went for a walk along the riverbank, and had a bit of a chat to a local.

Canada Hols - Badlands & Dinosaurs

Wednesday heralded an early start out to Drumheller to see the dinosaurs. On the way was flat green rolling farmland with cattle and crops, and Pumping-Jacks (oil & gas pumping) in the middle of the paddocks! A large windfarm was off in the distance. The roads were nice and wide roads, plenty of room to pull over for photos or for breakdowns, if they occur. We stopped at Horseshoe Canyon. You would not even know it was there, except for the signs, as it was gouged down into the landscape. It was too muddy, due to heavy rain the previous night, for us to walk down into it. A local firm does helicopter tours, and has a fossil booth at the top. This was our first encounter with cute little gophers. Drumheller boasts the World's largest Dinosaur statue at the Information Centre, and they gave us an update on road closures. We turned south along the Hoodoo Trail to visit 'The Hoodoos'. These are spectacular formations caused by erosion of the sandstone when there is more resistant stone on top. Back towards Drumheller we stopped for lunch at Rosedale where there was a suspension bridge, rebuilt from the earlier coal mining era. I missed the turnoff the other side of the river, so we went the "scenic route", and joined the trail from Munson, checking out another spectacular canyon – Horsethief Canyon. These canyons were formed when the glaciers melted at the end of the ice-age, and released huge volumes of water which scoured out the rock layers. We passed the 'Little Church' and then turned into the 'Royal Tyrell Museum', the largest collection in the world of dinosaurs and fossils. It was built in this area as there are so many fossils in this area. The photo of the model of the white worm-like creature is our oldest known ancestor. After seeing this you would not ever need to go into another dinosaur museum, it had everything. Outside we walked the interpretive trail, before driving back to Calgary for the night.