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.All Trips / Central USA / Kansas / North America
Monument Rocks, Kansas
I had not heard of Monument Rocks before staying at a hotel in Kansas during a recent road trip. Our hotel room displayed photos of some beautiful rock formations and on doing a little research, we realized they were not far off our route and definitely worth trying to see.
For big city folks, driving to Monument Rocks might seem like driving to the middle of nowhere, but persist in your journey as the trip is worthwhile. The road to Monument Rocks is mostly well paved, although the final 6 miles is a gravel road that during heavy rains might get flooded and be difficult to navigate without all-wheel or four wheel drive. When we visited the weather and road were …
Tagged badlands, chalk, Monument Rocks
.All Trips / Alberta / Central Canada / North America
Visiting Alberta’s Dinosaur Country: 1) The Royal Tyrrell Museum
At first glance, the small city of Drumheller seems an unlikely place to find a superb science museum – one of the finest in Canada and one that is very family-oriented. The museum opened in 1985 and was given “Royal” status in 1990 by Queen Elizabeth, a sign of high distinction.
I live in Calgary and when I have visitors who are inclined to see a museum, I always suggest they drive to see the Royal Tyrrell. Alberta is the dinosaur capital of the world and this museum houses one of the most interesting and diverse collection of fossils and related items you’ll find anywhere. The Royal Tyrrell has a collection of over 125,000 fossils, mostly vertebrates.
Entrance to Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller
The Museum is located in …
“Pic of the Week”, November 28, 2014: Hoodoos, Drumheller, Alberta
The amazing patterns of erosion you find in Alberta’s badlands sometimes create unusual formations, especially these structures known as “hoodoos”. The name “hoodoo” was based on the word “voodoo”, and was given to these formations by Europeans. Each hoodoo is a totem-pole like sandstone pillar resting on a thick base of shale that is capped by a larger stone. Hoodoos are created over millions of years by differential erosion, the hoodoo eroding at a rate which is slower than the surrounding land because its cap-rock is made of more durable material. Native Indian tribes (eg. Blackfoot) believed the Hoodoos were petrified giants that could come alive at night.
This particular grouping of hoodoos is one of the most dramatic examples you’ll see …
.All Trips / Alberta / Central Canada / North America
Hiking in Horseshoe Canyon; an introduction to Alberta’s Badlands
Most of the hikes I’ve featured on this blog are in Alberta’s Rocky Mountains, with good reason. The scenery in these mountains is truly spectacular, the altitude not overly taxing, and the long summer days are usually dry and sunny. But there’s a lot more to Alberta than its Rocky Mountains. Most of the province is actually composed of vast rolling prairies within which you’ll find limited regions known as “the Badlands”. The Badlands are one of the most unique ecosystems in Alberta, a mostly treeless environment that offers expansive and colorful vistas of eroded, banded mesas, buttes, and coulees.
The easiest place to explore the Badlands is at Horseshoe Canyon, just over an hour’s drive north of Calgary, near Drumheller, …
Tagged Alberta, badlands, fossils, hiking, Horseshoe Canyon
“Pic of the Week”. June 20, 2014: “Black Beauty”, Drumheller, Alberta
One of the most amazing Natural History museums I’ve ever visited is the Royal Tyrrell Museum in the small town of Drumheller, just over an hour’s drive northeast of Calgary. The museum sits in the “Badlands” and it’s here in the hills around the museum (and throughout Alberta) that the world’s most extensive deposits of fossilized dinosaur bones are to be found. I’ve got to write a full blog post on the museum and Alberta’s dinosaur country soon, but as a teaser I thought I’d share the Tyranossaus Rex exhibits at this museum with you today.
One of the highlights of the museum is “Black Beauty”, a rare nearly completely intact T Rex skeleton, one of a few ever found in …
Jun 19, 2014
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