Fourth, Fifth, Sixth Stop Alberta (Áísínai'pi Writing-on-Stone Prov. Park & Dinosaur Prov. Park & Calgary)

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On Thursday the drive from Regina into Alberta would probably have been bored had I not picked up 2 hitchhikers, Jade and Oliver from Montreal of all places! Actually every traveller I have encountered was from Montreal heading to BC for the summer, I guess it is just a thing we do. Everyone called me crazy for doing that but here is my reasoning, a) they were a very young looking couple, 18, one of which was a girl (I would rather pick up two people than one because what are the chances that two people are murderous sociopaths); b) they had large backpacks with tents and sleeping bags so they clearly aren’t going to steal my stuff because they can’t run very far; and c) I obviously asked them what their travel plans were and they spoke like travellers and knew a lot about berry picking in BC so their story seemed to check out, just follow your good instincts.



Anyway when you enter Alberta you can stop at Medicine Hat and from there travel west to Calgary or more south to some Provincial Parks. I dropped the hitchhikers off and headed down to Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park. Camping grounds fill up fast there so if you are planning to stay you need to reserve in advance. I drove 30 minutes out to Milk River camping grounds and stayed there the night. It was my first time pitching a tent and camping on my own. As soon as my beautiful tent was pitched it started to thunder and rain so I had to sleep in my car at night because the only time I was in a tent was in Nepal during a thunderstorm the night of the earthquake so I started to get some weird ptsd. In the morning I woke up early and had breakfast in Milk River at your stereotypical small town farmer diner filled with only old white farmer men and then headed back to Writing-on-Stone. This is a large nature reserve in the badlands that protects many Aboriginial pictographs and petroglyphs (rock carvings and paintings) more specifically the Blackfoot tribe. It's other name is Áísínai'pi meaning written. This is the greatest area with rock art in North America. At night when the moon goes down you can see different faces take shape, but I did not stay that long unfortunately. You can also hike to the North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) outpost. The battle scene is one of the most elaborate pieces of wall carvings ever and is said to depict a tribal battle.

Dinosaur Provincial Park s a 2 hour drive north from Áísínai'pi and is a UNESCO World heritage site . The drive from Medicine Hat down to Writing-on-Stone then back to Dinosaur Provincial Park is long and boring so if you want to camp in the badlands, I would recommend picking one, probably Áísínai'pi if you do not care much for Dinosaurs. The latter park has the largest fossils of dinosaurs but if you do not know what a dinosaur bone looks like, chances are you will not find one. For example, I asked the locals where the fossils were and they laughed at me and told me they have been hiking here for a long time and there are none except the 2 dinosaurs on exhibit. In that case I asked them why it would be designated a UNESCO world heritage site and why the sign said "do not remove fossils from this area, it is illegal" if there was no bones? They shrugged their shoulders and said obviously if there was fossils that paleontologists would remove them. Well luckily I ran into Canadian paleontologist Philip Currie who showed me what I was looking for (ha! that will show the locals). Turns out the bone fossils are the size of rocks and look like white debris so I was a bit disappointed thinking I would find full out skulls and vertebras from the ground. He told me just last week they found 3 skeletons which they were excavating now. But to go see those you need to book a bus tour since the campground is big, and you can help them dig it up. He said is you see a pile of bone debris there is probably a bone int he ground but they do not excavate that because there are thousands, they will only excavate if there are signs of two or three bones near each other because then it is likely that you will find a skeleton. Although it was very interesting I was still slightly disappointed but a hike through the badlands and some camping would make it worth it. For me though, the drive was too long.



I arrived Saturday night in Calgary and stayed at Wicked Hostel (it is as awesome as its name). We all went out to Wurst bar, all pubs in Calgary are very rodeo themed. Calgary's pub and party scene is really great, Wurst was huge and still packed full. If you go downstairs there are tones of people dancing on the table by the end of the evening, so go early if you want a spot! During the day I went to MEC in Calgary to get a tent and a sleeping bag for camping in Banff, I have never done camping by myself so I was really winging it, I also got a mini stove top with some pots and pans for cooking. Later I went window shopping at Stephen Avenue (a part of 8th avenue) and in the TD square. In TD square I bought a summer raincoat because I was not expecting the weather in Alberta to be so cold so I figured that my hoodie would not be enough for camping when I reach Banff. I also visited Fort Calgary (very boring, do not listen to Google, do not go there) and drove through the Calgary stampede park where the Scotiabank Saddledome is but not much was going on. 17th avenue beginning at the corner of 4th street has a lot of pubs and restaurants to eat at with really nice outdoor terraces to enjoy the weather. I ate at Local 501which was delicious but pricey and later on the group at the hostel headed down to bowling at a three story pub, one with roof terrace, it's main floor, and bowling on the lower floor). This place was also packed and filled with local beers. Overall the party and restaurant scene in Calgary is really great and the locals are very friendly.

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