I spent Thanksgiving weekend in Drumheller, Alberta. I saw it how great the area looked while watching the Amazing Race Canada this summer and since it is not all that far away I decided to visit.
Despite being slowed down a bit by a long stretch of road that being paved, I still arrived in Drumheller is less than 4.5 hours. I definitely thinking there could have been a bit tricky without a GPS as the drive involved going on a bunch of different highways. However, once I got to Drumheller it would have taken some serious talent to get lost as there were signs everywhere listing the attractions in the area.
When I arrived I saw the world’s largest dinosaur though I didn’t bother actually paying the $3 to go inside of it and picked up the free visitor’s guide. I then went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum which is focused on dinosaurs. It was a nice museum but a bit busy and there were a lot of people who wouldn’t stop talking which made reading all the information a bit difficult; still, it was definitely worth visiting and I suspect it may be much busier at times. After that I walked around the museum’s trail and then went onto another trail which was nice but unfortunately, some of it still had that awful newly paved smell. In the evening, I walked downtown a bit where there is an insane amount of dinosaur statues.
The world’s tallest dinosaur
Inside the Royal Tyrrell Museum
One of the many dinosaur statues in downtown Drumheller
On Sunday, I went the Atlas Coal Mine which is a national historic site and the only remaining coal mine of the 139 there once were in the Drumheller area. I got there early and was the first visitor and wondered if there would be anyone else there. I did two tours: the tipple tour and the underground tour. The first tour had just three of us while the second once was much more popular and had 17. I’m glad I did the tours as they went to places that you can’t go if you don’t do tours and they were quite informative. I found it really interesting that this company managed to sell there coal for twice the price of other companies simply by painting it orange and advertising that that was better! The underground was actually more into the ground, like a cave. It was a bit of an uphill climb but quite easy despite the warnings they give!
Atlas Coal Mine
After that I went to the hoodoos and then to the suspension bridge. There was a sign at the suspension bridge that “swaying” of the bridge was not allowed which was really unfortunate as I personally think that jumping on suspension bridges makes the walk across so much more fun! Still it was a nice walk with beautiful scenery. I then proceeded to Wayne a place that once had 2,490 residents but now has just 28. To get there I took a really nice drive that crossed eleven bridges in six kilometres; all but one of the bridges was one lane and all were wooden.
Hoodoos
I then drove through town and over to Horseshoe Canyon and then turned around and drove around the Dinosaur Trail. I stopped at a little church that sits just six people! I then went to Horsethief Canyon was fantastic and then took the Bleriot Ferry over the river. It was good that the crossing was very short and this was definitely the slowest ferry ride ever! It was funny that the ferry had a lifeboat and lifejackets as the water was so shallow but I guess they have to legally have them! On the other side of the river, I stopped at the Orkney Viewpoint which might just have been the most scenic viewpoint in the whole area! All of that took the entire day.
Horsethief Canyon
View from the Orkney Viewpoint
This morning, I left Drumheller. There was very little traffic which was great and I arrived back in North Battleford around 2 o’clock.
Amanda NOT in Abu Dhabi 