Working fast to get a few trips in before the snow flies, falls, and otherwise intrudes on a well-ordered life, we headed out to Drumheller last week.
Welcoming visitors, I guess, although I’d have been fine with a small sign.
For the Big Guy, this was visit #1; for me, visit #something-in-the-small-single-digits, with the most-recent one being about 40 years ago. A few things have changed.
For one, these days the best-rated restaurant in town serves Indian food, not burgers or steaks. For two, there’s a downtown distillery outlet merged with a taco-&-burrito-serving counter that’s morphed from a highly rated food truck. For three, the marketers/branders have struck:
- Area billboards now refer to the town as the Drum.
- Suspension bridges that link the main highway with a gravel road through the hills have been branded as the 11 Bridges of Wayne, Wayne being the ghost town (pop. 25 or maybe 29. It depends who you ask. Or maybe it depends on the day.) between bridges #9 and #11. Wayne offers a live saloon and a hotel with rooms (sans bathrooms) at $65/night.
The 11 Bridges of Wayne, in order, left to right, top to bottom.
The best of the 11: #9, counting from the main highway. Gotta love that offset.
Even with these changes, though, there was lots that was familiar. The nice thing about a geological attraction is its consistency over the span of even half a human lifetime. The landscape, for instance, is much as it ever wuz. Rugged. Stark. Dry. Impressive from the comfort and safety of a viewpoint; maybe a little intimidating from any other point of view. There’s a reason they’re called the Badlands.
Horseshoe Canyon
Horse Thief Canyon
The landscape that produces hoodoos, given enough time.
As for those signature geological attractions — the hoodoos — they’re accessible right off the highway (although protected by fences), via convenient metal stairways.
What you see first.
I have to say, walkways and fenced-in hoodoos lack some of the wilderness thrill of my memory, even with the (new!) ice-cream stands in the adjacent parking lot being closed for the season. (Where the heck were they when I could still eat ice cream?) But an artist is not to be denied (or me either). With some care, I can choose what to feature, even if it’s not always possible to eliminate all signs of civilization.
What you can make it look like.
As with the geology, the Drum’s paleontological attractions have not changed overmuch in 40 years since my last visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum: fossils are funny like that. Maybe some displays are a tad more artistic and some a tad cuter than I remember, but that change could as easily be in the eye of the beholder, now with a phone camera in her hand.
Gosh. They *all* look fierce. Could it be a coincidence?
Not a coincidence. Flesh on those bones is even scarier. Imagine encountering the real deal.
Finally, can you guess how long it took to get this shot without a person in the background? Sigh. At least the subject obligingly held its pose. Statues are funny like that.
Who knew the velociraptor was the comedian of the Jurassic?
I have found the Royal Tyrell has changed a wee bit.
Back in the dark ages they had computers where you could design your own version of a dinosaur. They would tell you if the neck was to long or the legs too short for your design to survive.
The kids were so involved that they did not even start, after very few minutes, to complain that I was much too slow.
Barry – That’s interesting – you’d think there’d be more computer-aided stuff now!
Fascinating scenery, Isabel.
Tom
Thanks, Tom. It’s sorta the opposite of “lush” but it can be striking.
… and they had feathers!!
Barbara – They did! Such an exciting discovery.
I didn’t know they were calling themselves Drum now. You captured beautiful landscape views, special to that geology.
Judith – Thank you – and I don’t know whether it’s caught hold beyond the graphic designers making signs and banners. It caught my attention because two towns outside Ottawa – Arnprior and Renfrew – are referred to locally as “the Prior” and “the Frew”. Same number of syllables as the full versions, even – not sure why those nicknames caught on.