Day 25 - Monday June 12/17

(Written and posted Wednesday June 14/17)

Today was a ‘travel day’ - from the Saskatchewan side of Cypress Hills Inter-Provincial Park into Alberta to Dinosaur Provincial Park. We varied from our planned route to avoid what we discovered on closer examination would be dirt roads! 

We are trying a new feature in the blog today - for travel days - at the suggestion of our friend Chris Overall of Kingston: to include a photo of the map section we have travelled. Today’s includes the western edge of the Saskatchewan map and the eastern edge of the Alberta map. On the map photo the blue highlighted roads are the pre-planned route, and the green highlighted roads are the variations. The green circles are the beginning and ending points.

On the way north to Maple Creek and the Trans-Canada Hwy we stopped at a ‘point of interest’ noting the 1800’s trail from Fort Walsh (near Alberta border) to Fort Qu’Appelle (north-east of Regina) - almost 500km.(photo)

We continue to imagine with amazement what it must have been like for the early explorers, fur traders, and settlers (pre-railroad) to traverse this vast country by foot, canoe, horseback, ox-carts and horse-drawn wagons! 

Our travels today took us through Medicine Hat (“The Hat” to locals, we discovered when talking with a lady from ‘The Hat’ who has a cottage in Cypress Hills (SK)!) In ‘The Hat’ we took opportunity to accomplish several necessary errands: Canadian Tire for a new camp stove and screws for the trailer door latch; groceries at Sobeys; an RV dealer for a replacement part for the trailer awning arm; a vape store for e-juice; lunch at Mucho Burrito; and, while we were in the strip mall where the vape store was, Nancy spotted a store that sold Carhartt pants that was offering 20% off, so Michael bought a new pair (dark brown) - a good deal at 20% off! (these are virtually the only make (Carhartt) and style (B11’s) of casual pants Michael wears any more, as they have a little patch pocket on each side, one that his iPhone fits into, and one that his e-cigarette fits into!). All of our errand stops were within about 3km of each other (thank you Google Maps!), and we spent about 3 hours in ‘The Hat’, including our lunch stop. 

We arrived at Dinosaur Provincial Park at about 4:30pm; had a look down into the Red Deer River valley badlands from the lookout up on the grasslands level(photos); 

then went to check in at the services centre; then went to the Visitor Centre and booked into a ‘Fossil Safari Tour’ for tomorrow, 

and then went and set up on our campsite.(photos)

The view from our campsite

The view from our campsite

Panoramic view from our campsite in Dinosaur Provincial Park AB

(We both noted - to each other - how much more efficient we are getting at both setting up and hitching up the trailer!)

Dinosaur Provincial Park (Nancy has been here once on a quick tour with her friend Lynn; Michael has never been here) was established by Alberta in 1955. It was declared a U.N.E.S.C.O World Heritage Site in 1979, due to:

• The exceptional abundance and diversity of dinosaur and other vertebrate fossils
• the largest and most spectacular area of badlands in Canada
• the unique riparian (riverside) habitat including extensive groves of plains cottonwood trees that provide critical living space for many bird species

Over 49 different species of dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous Period (75 million years ago) have been found in the park making it the richest site for such dinosaur fossils in the world. 

We took half an hour to sit with a glass of wine and enjoy the birdsong that surrounded us. It was like being in a aviary! Some birds we recognized, but there were many that were new to us. The concert was restorative so after a quick supper of chill we decided to take advantage of the clear, sunny weather and do some exploring. (The dishes were left in the sink.)

First we followed a path leading from our campsite to the small stream behind us - about 40 m. Even with a relatively small flow of water we could see the the effects of erosion on the sandstone bank. 

Then we headed out on the 3 km Public Loop Road. We got to examine the coulees and barrens of the badlands up close. A nice feature of the road is that there are two Fossil Houses where we got to learn more about the research into dinosaurs that is carried on here. The first display showed an actual find in situ, and the other was a reconstruction of discovery site, detailing the painstaking and methodical process of fossil excavation and preservation. Both displays had written explanations and recorded commentary by a palaeontologist.

After the tour we returned to our campsite and, once again avoiding doing dishes, we enjoyed a campfire, roasted marshmallows on our newly-acquired bamboo toasting sticks (purchased at Aust’s General Store in Big Beaver SK! - no more cutting of green sticks for us!) and made S'mores with arrowroot cookies instead of (graham crackers).

We did not write up and post a blog today, as there is no cell service down in the river valley in the badlands. We plan to write up today and tomorrow tomorrow and drive up to the lookout point at grasslands level to post both days on Wednesday June 14th.