Summer Vacation - Day 4

This day was our driving day... we were packing up and leaving the badlands, heading west to the mountains.  The girls had one last chance to play in the playground before rolled out of Dorothy.  I played around with my camera a little and took some detail shots of the Gramma grass.  I'm always intrigued with the way this stuff turns to little combs, and then as summer winds down and it ripens it curls up into little false eyelashes.  As we made our way back up the Red Deer Valley we made a brief stop at the Hoodoos.  We always just rolled past this spot without so much as a second look.  I have stopped here many times in the past, dating back to when I was a young boy.  In recent years steps have been taken to protect the hoodoos and there are now stairways and viewing platforms.  Not quite the same as back in the day when everyone used to climb all over them.  I realized after this stop that this was the first time the girls had really explored here... and they loved it!!  I guess this will become a regular stop for us every time we pass through the area.  This time around, being the height of tourist season, the parking lot was pretty full, with not much room for a truck and trailer.  I waited with the truck, in case I needed to move it, while the girls briefly explored.

We left Drumheller and headed west making a brief stop at the Gopher Hole Museum in beautiful downtown Torrington.  Someone must have had too much time on their hands, creating dozens of little diaramas with stuffed gophers.  What we rednecks call gophers are actually Richardsons Ground Squirrels.  We had never been here before and it was a fun place to stop and well worth the $2 admission.

After this stop we continued west, passing through Olds and on to Sundre, then north to Rocky Mountain House.  After a brief stop for groceries and more beer, we turned west onto the David Thompson Highway.  We made it as far as the Harlech campsite on Shunda Creek where we settled down for the night.  We had to camp in the overflow area as all of the designated campsites were too small for a truck and fifth wheel.  But, by evening the traffic on the adjacent highway settled down and we had a peaceful and quiet night.  Earlier that evening the girls and I took a walk along Shunda Creek.  The three of them picked a bouquet of wildflowers for their Mom, which she transported along with us for the remainder of our trip.