Walking on Dinosaur Bones
TransCanada Roadtrip Across Alberta
Dinosaur Provincial Parks is close to the Trans Canada highway and along the way to Calgary so it’s definately worth the stop. I didn’t know anything about it so I was surprised that the ground, which had been flat for some time suddenly dropped way into a valley of badlands at the edge of a cliff.
There is one trail through a protected area but I was also surprised that the majority of the park is open to wandering. The hills can be climbed up and down and all around.
A lot of fossils were excavated from the area and the concentration of bones it so high that without a doubt I was walking ontop of still buried bones. That was pretty exciting and I tried looking for some but I didn’t really know what to look for. A few times I thought I might have found a bone fragment but it was probably petrified wood.
From Dinosaur Provincial Park I drove towards Drumhellar to the Hoodoos, an interesting rock formation created by errosion. I was again surprised that while the main formations are protected, one can walk around pretty much anywhere. Considering that it’s all limestone that’s erroding anyways it’s probably not a big deal, but it was a surprise.
I also stopped at the Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site to see an old coal mine from the exterior.
In Calgary I stayed with a good friend from engineering. Originally I planned on just staying for a night but I decided to make it two so that I could go downtown without rushing and see the new public library. When it opened it made a big splash in the architectural world — and for good reason. The museum was designed by Snøhetta, a famous Norwegian architectural firm and they did a very good job with it. It’s obviously a high profile and expensive project, but it also shows in many ways why you shouldn’t cheap out and the value for having nice things.
There were lots of interesting moments, both on the interior and the exterior. The building is primarily framed around a grand atrium but even around the edge there are lots of nice seating areas.
On the flip side, I also saw the bridge designed by Calatrava and was less impressed. It also has a reputation of being very expensive but I don’t think the value is there. It’s a great connection across the river to downtown but although it was under refurbishment at the time, I wasn’t overly impressed.
I was pretty anxious to get to the coast so I skipped over Banff National Park. I’ve driven the Ice Fields Parkway twice and I would like to do it again some day, but not alone. It’s the kind of drive that I’d much rather do with someone to accompany me. So the only place I stopped in Banff was a short drive near the town to see the Vermillion Lakes since I noticed it on the map as I was getting gas.
It’s quite picturesque, as is the whole region.
