Dino's in Alberta May 5 - 10/2012

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It is terrible weather now in Yoho National Park. We hardly can see the road. So instead of exploring the region we decide to drive further to the East past the mountains. And indeed when we finally arrive at Brooks there is even some sunshine. After Brooks we hit some secundary roads through an uninteresting agricultural landscape. Once this was prairie, where bisons used to graze. Now and then we see some little paddocks of prairie in between the vast fields with corn, the breadbasket of North America. Almost nothing is left of the original landscape. Even in the tiniest prairiefields we see traces of oilindustry.

But we come neither for the cornfields nor for the oilindustry. We are aiming for the Dinosaurus Provincial Park, the biggest Dino's cemetery in the world. It all started in 1910 when Tyrrell found the skeleton of a big Albertosaurus (a kind of Tyrannosaurus) around the Red Deer River. In the wake of this discovery the Great Dinosaurus Rush arose, comparable with the famous goldrush to the Yukon. When the Canadian government saw that all their treasures ended up in foreign musea (specially the American Museum of Natural History, for which Barnum Brown collected), they engaged Charles H. Steinberg to restore the balance. Footballfieds of fossilised bones were found. It was not possible to throw your hat in the field without hitting a fossil, someone said. And still new skeletons are discovered.

When we arrive at the badlands of the Dinosaurus Provincial Park we are amazed by the landscape. It is as prehistoric as the fossils found in it. Strange hoodoo sculptures dominate the surroundings, as if the landscape is itself fossilised. Next morning we make a hike. The clayish slopes are slippery because of the rain the night before. We see awkward popcornlike structures, swollen by the uptake of water. When we touch it, the stones pulverise immediately. Erosion is fully at work. Within some decennia the landscape will be changed and finally nothing will be left. Thanks to this erosion every now and then new fossils are discovered. We see some fossils of plants, but we are not allowed to take them with us. We see several skeletons of dino's (replica's we suppose) and also the very spot where the Albertosaurus was found.

Next day we drive to Drumheller, the capital of Dino-world. A soon as we enter the city we are surrounded by dinosaurusses, shops with fossils and precious stones and advertisements with dino-logo's. Of course we camp at a dino-campsite. Most impressing is the Royal Tyrrell Museum, which displays endless rafts of dino's. It is one of the best musea we have seen. 70 procent of the skeletons is real, assures one of the workers. The hall of fame looks like a museum of art. The displays are framed like old paintings. Meanwhile Vivaldi fills softly the solem area. But instead of the Mona Lisa a black Tyrannosaurus makes the show. It feels like I walk in a mausoleum.

Till now we drove all the time to the East, but today we started to drive to the North. Via highway 56 we drive to Elk Island National Park. We find a beautiful campsite and because it is still not officially opened we can stay here for free. We come to see the mighty buffalo's (bisons). But when we make a hike of several hours we do not see any bison. Also when we make next day another hike we do not see any animal, but some beavers, which have big dens and dams in the ponds. Finally when we drive late in the afternoon along the road, we are suddenly surrounded by a herd of bisons. They are addicted to the grass in the shoulders of the road. Woodbisons they are called. They are a bit bigger than the plainbisons, which live at the other side of the road. A fence separates both populations to prevent interbreeding. Woodbisons are rare, we read. A bit later we see some mooses, which are almost as mighty as the bisons. The elks, after which the park is named, are not visible at all.

Nex day we drive further to the North. The long yourney to the Yukon has begun.

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Comments

[Jaap van Elst]

Welke slang is het?
Volgens ons is jullie eerste slang, die je ons op de foto laat zien, een Thamnophis elegans