August Long Weekend in the Badlands

We set out to the badlands for the August long weekend.  We weren't able to leave right away as we were travelling with our German relatives, and they had to return their rental motorhome on Saturday morning.  But we got away at a reasonable hour, and found ourselves down at the TL Bar Ranch by afternoon.  Nine of us were sharing our trailer as home base, though we did have a tent along for some extra sleeping space.  We settled down at the ranch campsite and enjoyed a nice evening in the badlands.  

The next morning we had a trailride booked and all nine of us went out on horseback for an hour and a half. This was the first time on horses for my cousin Roswitha, and her husband Gunnar.  It was a great ride up to the prairie overlooking the Red Deer River valley, and eventually back down to the ranch.  After the trail ride we packed up and headed for Drumheller.  We tried to stop at the Royal Tyrell Museum and rolled in with the trailer in tow.  The upper parking area was completely full, and it was very busy.  We continued on down to the overflow and RV parking area down below.  We soon discovered that this area was full too, and we were in a jam.  We had driven in to an area that we could not pass through, due to several people that had parked illegally.  We had no option but to back the truck and trailer out of the parking lot, and part way back up the hill in order to get turned around and get out.  Eventually, with Margarit and Gunnar directly traffic, I was able to get out.  We headed over to the PalcoPrep shop and dropped off the trailer.  Then we returned to the museum with just our truck and the rental car that the Germans were travelling in.  By this time is was late in the afternoon, and the museum crowds were thinning out a little.  We spent a couple of hours touring the museum and enjoying all the displays.  One of the highlights for me was to see the recently added feathered dinosaurs.  Two small raptors were prepped and on display.  These showed evidence of proto-feathers, and were the first specimens to ever be found in north Amercia.  This was of particular importance to me because my close friend and business partner, Frank Hadfield, found both of them. Of course true to bureaucratic form the museum did not give him proper credit for this significant find.  After we finished up at the museum we went back and picked up our trailer, and then headed out to the ghost town of Dorothy for the night.

The kids had a blast at Dorothy playing in the old playground and exploring the old churches and buildings. It was a beautiful clear evening and Frank and his wife Chris dropped by and spent the evening with us.  The night was really clear and there were a lot of stars visible.  Gunnar commented that this was only the second time in his life that he had seen the Milky Way.  I guess we Canadians just take stuff like this for granted.

The next morning we got up and wandered around Dorothy a little more.  Gunnar and I spent and hour or so exploring and photographing the old Alberta Pacific grain elevator with his daughter Vivien.  Later we headed back up the valley towards Drumheller.  We stopped near the Hoodoos and while everyone explored there, I wandered around a little and took some badlands photos with my view camera.  Then we continued on to the Last Chance Saloon in the Rosedeer Hotel up in Wayne.  We had lunch and a couple of cold beverages here, before heading over to the Suspension Bridge in Rosedale.  It was kind of nice to catch up on all this touristy stuff as we have spent many weekends down in the badlands in recent years, but always have blown by all this stuff.

By dark we finally found ourselves setting up camp at the Bleriot Ferry Campsite.  It was pretty quiet as the long weekend was now over, and most of the tourists had headed for home.  We settled down for the evening and the next morning went up into the hills for a hike.  We had a bit of an episode with an electric fence but other than that we enjoyed hiking and exploring and the Germans even found a few scraps of dinosaur bone.  Late in the day we packed up and hit the highway for home.  It was after dark and late in the evening before we finally rolled back up to the house.  I had to return to work the next morning, but the girls were all able to sleep in.  We had a couple more opportunities to get together with our relatives before they had to catch their flight back to Germany on Friday morning.  We really enjoyed getting reacquainted with them and to have the opportunity to do some travelling and exploring together.