Dinosaur Provincial Park, AB

---

Yesterday we visited Dinosaur Provincial Park, between Medicine Hat and Drumheller. The landscape is mesmerizing. We were lucky to have a windy day - it was quite hot and the mosquitos were pretty bad in the bottom of the valley. One section of the park was off limits due to flooding (Red Deer river flows through the park). We went on a 'fossil safari' with a bright, perky guide named Amanda. She brought us to a place where the ground was littered with broken bits of dinosaur bone, turtle shell, dinosaur teeth, etc, etc from the late Cretaceous period. We were allowed to touch, but not pick up the pieces - some kind of psychological trick to keep us from going the next step and pocketing them...anyway, it seemed kind of crazy as it was impossible to walk around without stepping on something..a fun and tiring day.

Today we visited an abandoned coal mine outside of East Coulee - a small town on the outskirts of Drumheller. A drift mine (as opposed to a shaft mine) - we hiked up this really long, steep wooden tunnel that cut into the ground where the coal seam was. There was a conveyor belt the length of the tunnel that brought the coal down to sorting screens in a huge wooden tipple. The tour mostly consisted of the guide telling wacky anecdotes of colourful miners and tricks that veteran miners would play on the rookies. She made it seem like coal mining was a real good time, but I remain unconvinced... M made the comment after the tour that he felt so great in the mine tunnel - he felt like he belonged there.

We also stopped at a place on the roadside where there were some hoodoos and a place where we could hike around freely. M and F hiked right to the top of the plateau.

---