ALBERTA - Badlands, Dinosaurs & Hoodoos

Hoodoos!!   

As we hit Alberta, the land flattened out to rolling hills & prairies - but we had some very specific things to see in this province.  We were there for the Badlands ... the eroded valleys of the Hoodoos - mysterious eroded rock forms, where the combination of softer sedimentary rock with harder intrusions has created capped pillars, stacked pillars, holes & shapes like lava flows.  Indian people saw faces in the rocks and regarded these "Badlands" as places of especial spiritual importance.

Writing on Walls Provincial Park - site of Canadian Aboriginal pictographs & spiritual significance.

At "Writing on the Walls" Provincial Park, down the south of the Alberta, we decided on a guided tour for an interpretation of the markings and introduction to the startling environment.  The native American pictographs can be dated with surprising specificity, in spite of the confusing overlay of modern graffiti.  In once instance the depiction of Model T Fords has been tracked down to a very specific occasion in the 1920s - other carvings high up are known to be many hundreds of years old.

We then moved north to Dinosaur Park ... where, in another eroded dry river valley, the most amazing complete Dinsosaur skeletons and other fossils have been discovered.  

Dinosaur Provincial Park - site of amazing finds.  Work is ongoing.

Many of these finds are now on exhibition at either the museum at Dinosaur Park, or at the mecca for lovers of paleontology, the Royal Tyrell Museum at Drumheller (pronounced 'tie-rell" I discovered).  Apart from the fossils themselves, a highlight for was the opportunity to watch and talk to students cleaning bones - and the view into the big laboratory.  I don't know where this museum gets its funding, but everything is beautifully exhibited and explained, especially the stories about finding and extracting some of the spectacular fossils.

Death throes of a tyrannosaur, set in stone, at the Royal Tyrell Museum.  It was the second incredible find by the same staff member in two years, and was removed as a single slap - with great difficulty.

Opalised ammonite fossil - about 50cms diameter and absolutely stunning!!  I want one!!!

As we drove out of the town of Drumheller, the scenery continued to amaze.  It is difficult to do justice verbally or photograhically to such an awe inspiring landscape.

(PS - if you double click on the pictures, they will enlarge)