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Published: April 26th 2014
When: 19 April 2014
Where: Dinosaur & Kinbrook Island Provincial Parks
Little S(well, not so little anymore) is now an ardent fan of dinosaurs. It all started with a computer game called Dino Dan where she had to take care of dinosaurs. All kinds of them. All the weird-o-saurus names started pouring in. G and I stayed away from it for a while. A few months. But eventually succumbed to it! The craze of knowing all dinosaurs by name, diet, size & which period they lived. Triassic, Jurassic & Cretaceous. A visit to Royal Tyrell Museum made sense a few months ago. But with Spring finally around the corner, we drove ourselves 3 hours due East to
Dinosaur Provincial Park.
The park is home to a variety of dinosaur fossils including Ceratopsians, Hadrosaurs, Ankylosaurs, Dromeosaurus and Troodon.
Information on the park S expected to see many many dinosaurs(like in
Royal Tyrell Museum) and I had to run some reality checks with her. 😊
Our first stop was at the Visitor Center. Admission fees are $3 to see all the exhibits. S was super-excited with our walk to the washroom. We walked through exhibits, a tent
model, followed some dino foot prints to there.
There was no stopping S. Oh! Ma, Look!!! This is Chasmosaurus!
Look at that skull ma! It looks like Patchi from Walking with the Dinosaurs(movie)!
"No ma, that's a herbivore. "
"It lived in the Cretaceous period."
"Its a friend of Triceratops!"
While it was not even close to the exhibits at the Drumheller Museum, we still enjoyed being there.
After all that talk and reading, S wanted to excavate her own dinosaur and got one at the gift shop.
It was tough convincing her to excavate later. She wants to become a Palentologist when she grows up! (as of today) 😊
We drove through the campground and stopped at the first parking lot beyond the bridge.
The Badlands Trail was a good start and one could climb practically anywhere, including the hoodoo itself. Once we climbed up and saw that the strength of the sand holding the hoodoo was questionable, we made more smart choices thereon.
As I took out my DSLR, I realized that the flat light did not do justice to the place. It was
unfortunate that we will be able to witness neither sunrise nor sunset. We should have camped!!!
We went off trail to explore some hoodoos and helped ourselves with the interpretive sign boards.
Just to keep the mood going, we made up a poem
Stone, Stone I like your tone Stone Stone Are you hiding a bone? O my! You are a sandstone You will erode and expose the bone. The park seemed such a protective space to park and camp. 200 years ago, with very little water, it would have been very tough for an explorer to pass through the badlands.
Our next stop was Fossil #1: Headless Hadrosaur
Next stop: Fossil# 2: Centrosaurus and other bones.
It was amazing to see our first ever fossil sight!
We took the short trail from Fossil 2 to Fossil 1 and in the process climbed up many hoodoos. We still questioned the park authorities who allow climbing anywhere and everywhere. 😞
S played being a herbivorous dinosaur and thoroughly enjoyed chomping off the leaves here and there. She pretended that
a bad witch turned her into a Dinosaur and she became a Maiasaura(her favourite dinosaur) and was magically transported to the Cretaceous period. G was having enough of dinosaur stories already.
At the Cottonwood trail, we saw the mighty
Red Deer river and the path it was carving for itself. We also saw the mighty cottonwoods and the special habitat that was there.
Its a pity we knew so little. About Dinosaurs. About Rivers. Prairies et Habitats. Truly a shame!
Life constantly changes. Once a Cottonwood grove, the habitat is changing to accommodate bushes and grasses.
A variety of different kind of animals will call the place "home".
S was tired with all the walking and climbing. There was no Dinosaur to see up-close. She had enough.
The Park is open year round and
Winter camping is open during the harsh months. Any takers?
The weather was warm with cool winds blowing from every possible channel.
Summer is extremely busy with special programs and tours. Most of the park is closed to car traffic and the tours are the only way to access these parts of the
park.
Summer also opens up
Comfort Camping in the park. Dinosaur PP is one of the few parks that provides this facitility.
For a list of Interpretive programs, click
here.
We had tried to find camping reservations during summer and they are always fully booked. The campground is not very big.
Maybe someday we would camp and take some of their programs.
We found our way S to
Brooks, AB where we were halting for the night.
Brooks was a very interesting town. Very tiny😊 and sparsely populated.
It was Easter weekend. Maybe, we shouldn't be too judgmental!
Sunday, 20 April 2014 Brooks, Alberta: The area that is now Brooks was originally used as a bison hunting ground for the Blackfoot and Crow. The base of the economy of the City of Brooks is energy (oil and gas) and agriculture. Population: > 12,000
Next day morning, a strange smell in the air welcomed us. Initially, I thought it was a hotel issue. But then realized that it should be a town situation if such a smell went around in the blowing air. Cattle!
After breakfast, we headed to the
Brooks Aqueduct historic site.
Brooks Aqueduct is a giant centipede of a river-up-high that brought waters of the Bow river to this community for irrigation purposes. Which it did for over 50 years. But another canal replaces
this structure now.
We were amazed at such a construction in 1914. I just remembered. That was the year of World War I.
From a century ago, it was an architectural marvel. And we could see why.
We had a few more hours to clock and headed to
Kinbrook Island Provincial Park- an Island on
Lake Newell (the namesake for which the county is named after).
The whole lake was mostly frozen and was creating its own weather with the wind coming from the ice. It was freezing at noon. But S found a friend to play with at the playground and so did we. We walked around following a prairie dog around all its tunnel openings.
The park should be a swell during the short summer months and with the wind howling made me realize the dread in winter. Calgary was far safer even with the wind. Our winds are incomparable to the ones in the Prairie.
And it was not before long we realized how vertically challenged the area was. No mountains. Not even hills. It is not a place for the faint-hearted.
Since we read about the
Bassano dam, we decided
to take a short detour.
Town of Bassano: located on the Trans-Canada Highway approximately 140 kilometres (87 mi) east of Calgary and 160 kilometres (99 mi) northwest of Medicine Hat. Population - 1,282
Asking for directions at the only Esso gas station proved futile. It was impossible to give directions. Take a L at the Petro Canada. R at the blue & white mill building. And then follow the gravel road. 😊
Once we got to the doubtful gravel road, we decided to go ahead as the road was well graded. Thunderstorms were brewing on all sides. The weather was hot with cool winds.
We read signs about dam tours, but there was no official visible to our eyes today. Maybe during the Summer months?
We walked down to the familiar Bow River. Only one thought came to my mind. Wow! How would the situation have been during the 2013 year floods. And I found a video on youtube. Scary! to say the least.
Bassano Dam during the 2013 floods We saw a truck ride on the dam, but we did not do it. The view down from atop the dam was scary. Weirdly, that was my first!
The way out seemed faster.
There was no stopping on our way back home. We did encounter a few thunderstorms here and
there. But nothing scary enough to stop and sit through. 😊
It was a very relaxed trip but very educational as this is our first trip this farther East.
We were very tempted to go E up to Medicine Hat, but maybe some other time. 😊
-travelbuffs
“We can’t know what’s going to happen. We can just try to figure it out as we go along. - Roger Sullivan”
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