Drumheller

Today we left the mountains behind!  It's crazy driving out of Banff towards Calgary.  One moment you are surrounded by mountains,  and the next you are in farmers fields with no warning.  We found it really interesting!  

First stop was to meet Trev's brother Andrew in Calgary.  Andrew recently took a nursing job at a Calgary hospital and they are trying to sell their house to move out to Calgary.  Andrew just got out there about a week ago so we met up with him at a breakfast place in Calgary.  Breakfast was sooo good!

We then continued the drive to Drumheller.  The most exciting part of the day!  We wore shorts and t-shirts!  For the first time in 13 days!  You know you are in Drumheller when suddenly every single thing is suddenly dinosaur themed.  Jurassic Hotel.  Velociraptor Ice Cream shop.  Dinosaur Chinese Food.  Drumheller Dinosaur Computer repair.  Literally everything.  Turn Right at Tyrannosaurus Street.  Turn left at Stegosaurus street.

First stop was the Guiness Book of World Records' World's Biggest Dinosaur!  You can go inside and climb it to look out his head.  While we were still on the ground a little kid was in the mouth calling down to his Grandma who was on the ground below.  "Grandma!  Look at me!  This dinosaur ated me!"  It was very cute!

All around town there are dinosaur statues everywhere!

We left the kitschy dinosaur and headed for our hike in Horseshoe Canyon.  It's so weird because you drive through perfectly flat farmer's fields and the GPS is saying the hike is 1 minute away and we figured we were lost because we didn't see a thing that looked like we'd want to hike in it.  And then suddenly, we show up at this amazing canyon!

Sign in the bathroom.

Owen thought this No Dumping sign on the outhouse was hilarious:  "If they don't allow Dumping, what's the point of the bathroom?"  Haha!

The badlands scenery is so unique and cool.  We all really loved this hike, and while it felt amazing to get some sun and finally wear shorts and short sleeves, we definitely quickly remembered that the heat is tough when you are travelling.  Down in this canyon it was sweltering and there was zero shade.  You go from 'this feels amazing' to 'I think I have sunstroke and am going to throw up,' very quickly.  Trev and the kids enjoyed climbing and I tried not to freak out as my family was way up high!  Honestly it was one of my favourite hikes of the trip.  Just so cool to explore!

Look for the tiny Anna

I'm not sure I've ever seen a wild cactus before!

Trevor and Owen are at the top here and Joel is halfway up on the right.

Anna

Owen realized a lot of this was clay which felt cool to play with in his hands.

We then left Horseshoe Canyon and drove to where some hoodoos are.  Hoodoos are these unique rock sculptures that have been eroded over years.

Anna's hoo doo selfie.

Exploring the area around the hoo doos

Owen (and then Anna) pretending to be hoo doos.

We then drove to check in at our Drumheller Air BNB.  It's fantastic!

The lilacs were blooming and smelled amazing!

Exploring the AirBNB Property

Then we went off to the Last Chance Saloon, and old pub from the Mining Camp days in the 20s.  Interesting place! We had dinner there. Lots to look at!

3 framed bullet holes in the wall.

The waitress turned on this Band-Box for us!

Ending the day writing in journals!

We ended the day watching recaps of the last 5 Jurassic Park movies.  Joel is a huge dinosaur/Jurassic Park/Jurassic World fan.  The new movie comes out tomorrow night.  Joel wanted to see it opening night but I had told him no, it's too chaotic on our trip.  But then we realized we'd be in the dinosaur capital of Canada and I did a quick search to see if there was a movie theatre in Drumheller and I found that the local theater was having a special showing on opening night.  There are special presentations  at the plaza by the Royal Tyrrell Museum (the big dinosaur museum here) which they will do before the movie to talk about the science beside the Jurassic movie dinosaurs.  And after that everyone will go and watch the movie.  It means that it will be our latest night out of the trip, and we will all be exhausted heading into our day to fly home, but we just had to do it.  So we got tickets!  So that's why we watched the recaps of the movie, to get us prepped for tomorrow.  Joel didn't have to, but Trev and I definitely have not watched the movies often enough to know the plot very well!

Given the fact that our day will end at 11pm tomorrow, I'm not going to do an entry tomorrow night so this will be the last entry until I get home (unless I can do one at the airport)!

Here are Trev's photos: