Blogs from Drumheller, Alberta, Canada, North America
How bad are ya? The Badlands of Canada
Published: August 11th 2011North America » Canada » Alberta » Drumheller
July 25th 2011
From the Rockies, we headed straight past Calgary and towards Drumheller. ‘Holy sweet Tuesday!’ was Brads exclamation as we headed off the number 2 and onto the 72 east and all we could see ahead of us was flat (not dead flat yet) agricultural land. ‘Can we still see the Rockies?’. Other brilliant conversations that evening included; Brad: ‘we’re entering wheatgerm county’, me: ‘I wonder why they call it that?’, Brad: ‘I think it’s because of all the canola’. After a brief stop for supper (burritos – Brad was madly craving meat by now!) on the side of the road, we made it to Drumheller with enough time before sundown to count an absurd number of dinosaur statues lining the streets. Drumheller is located along the Red Deer River in the region of Alberta called the ... read more
July 10th 2011
Drumheller is a town (formerly a city) within the Red Deer River valley in the badlands of east-central Alberta, Canada. The Drumheller portion of the Red Deer River valley is often referred to as Dinosaur Valley. The Royal Tyrrell Museum, located in Drumheller, is a leading centre of palaeontological research noted for its collection of more than 130,000 fossils. The museum is situated in the middle of the fossil-bearing strata of the Late Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation and holds numerous specimens from Dinosaur Provincial Park and the Devil's Coulee Dinosaur Egg Historic Nest Site. The badlands also have hoodoos, which are tall, thin spire of rock that protrudes from the bottom of an arid drainage basin or badland. Hoodoos consist of soft sedimentary rock topped by harder, less easily-eroded stone that protects each column from the ... read more
June 30th 2011
The Badlands and the Hoodoos While it was my intention to take things a little easier today I still ended up riding about 80 km’s including climbing 2 steep hills out of the valley. That being said most of my stuff was at camp so my load was light. I started the day heading east along the Hoodoo Trail to check out the Hoodoos which were quite cool. I would have thought the Hoodoos would have covered a much greater area, but whatever. They are a very unique formation; it makes it almost difficult to still realize that you are in Canada as these formations look like they are right out of the Grand Canyon or perhaps Mars. Because my goal to see the Hoodoos was accomplished in such quick time I decided to head back ... read more
Calgary In My Dust / Drumheller!
Published: June 30th 2011North America » Canada » Alberta » Drumheller
June 29th 2011
Tuesday June 28, 2011 Calgary In My Dust Bike was packed and left the hostel at 10:30. It took a little over 2 hour’s just get beyond the city limits and Calgary airport. Calgary has some real nice biking trails along the Bow River, but beyond those biking trails it is a lot of work for a biker to get out of Calgary. I had to make a detour to get some groceries and lunch and stumbled upon the area of Calgary that I had wandered/explored when I was here back in early April waiting for CGG VERITAS to fly me back to P.E.I. Once outside city limits I jumped on Hwy #2. I was told cyclist were aloud on the #2 outside city limits. That being said #2 was still a 3-4 lane Hwy with ... read more
September 11th 2010
DRUMHELLER Drumheller Valley is in the heart of the Alberta Badlands and is stunning natural scenery formed by erosion. It is also an area where tens of thousands of dinosaur bones have been discovered and is home to the fantastic Royal Tyrrell Museum. We spent almost a whole day at the Royal Tyrrell Museum as in addition to the very fine models of dinosaus it is a serious paleontology authority. We also enjoyed a day cruising around the Drumheller Valley visiting the famous Hoo Doos (rock formations), the Last Chance Saloon in Wayne which is reached by crossing 11 bridges in 4 miles and generally admiring the interesting scenery. We camped at Drumheller and awoke after a chilly last night there to find the tent frozen solid and the bikes covered in frost too!!... read more
June 23rd 2010
With the mountains so accessible to the west of Calgary, it is sometimes easy to forget that there is great geology to be seen to the east, especially for a sedimentologist. Each summer, the University Outreach Committee of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists puts on a one-day field trip for students based in Calgary. I got to go along this year, not just because I am a student, but because I am a member of the University Outreach Committee. The day started bright and early in downtown Calgary. We were delayed leaving the city because our bus had a little accident while it was parking on the street (street signs can do a lot of damage when a bus sideswipes them), but that just gave everyone lots of time to grab a coffee for the ... read more
June 7th 2010
When: 5th - 6th June Where: Drumheller, AB Highlights: Canadian badlands, Hoodoos, Camping, Old towns Mileage: 300 km Weather: 24C - 7C This is the place I wanted to visit when I got to know about the area, even before the Rockies. Desert landscapes always take the cake(to me). I was pretty excited to be here. We have never been East, at all. With the Pacific in the W, we could always never go on all directions when we were in CA. The very fact that I can go in all 4 directions(& actually do it) brings joy in itself. Drumheller was not the first choice. Our plans changed in the 11th hour(it never has, & this totally excites me) as Drumheller seemed a better option to get campsite without reservations.(When was the last time we ... read more
October 1st 2009
We went to the MEC store in Calgary to get backpacks and some other travelling gear. On the way home Carla just had to stop at the Royal Tyrell Museum in Drumheller, since she'd never been able to go before. We spent about two hours looking around, which is not near enought time to really get through and appreciate all of the exhibits.... read more
May 29th 2009
May 29 Hotel: Fairmont Palliser Calgary Our last full day in the Rockies. We didn't really have any plans for the day but we had to be in Calgary tonight as my wife was flying back home early tomorrow. We were looking at things to do/see along the way to Calgary, or near Calgary. I had noticed the Dinosaur Park and the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller on our maps, that sounded like a neat detour.. although it was clear on the opposite side of Calgary from the mountains. We also thought about driving around Kananaskis Country a bit. We showed up at the breakfast buffet at the hotel right at 8 which is a bad idea as all the tour groups are arriving then for breakfast; better to come before 8 or after 9. We ... read more
Has anyone seen a dinosaur penis?
Published: March 22nd 2010North America » Canada » Alberta » Drumheller
May 9th 2009
With our time winding down in Canada we made sure to fit in some of our favourite things before leaving. The first of which was a return to Drumheller. Rick made the trip to Calgary from Banff and before we left for Drumheller he did something completely retarded. Whilst playing darts he decided to throw one from about a metre away, it clanked into the board side on, bounced back and flew right into Rick's thumb. As he stood there bleeding, I wondered if I should help or just laugh. I really think they should give the guy a TV show. That night we called NZ to talk to some of our mates, a few of our other mates were in Japan for my friend Kenji's wedding. Check out the video I made for him here: ... read more
