Ending mileage: 3380 Ending time: 5:40 pm
Travel mileage: 377 Travel time: 9:40
Another cold and wet morning. 35 degrees and a coating of snow on the car.
We decided to attend church at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Cross in Calgary. It is a fairly modern church in the suburbs. It was nice to worship with them.
We thought we would go to the visitor center to find out what was of interest in downtown Calgary but were frustrated getting around due to streets blocked off for the gay pride parade. We eventually found parking and spent some time watching the parade which was quite long and had many spectators lining the sidewalks. We eventually made it to the visitor center and received a suggestion to visit Drumheller in the Badlands.
It was quite dramatic to be driving across the plains and then suddenly descend into the deeply cut valley of the Red Deer River. This was more like what we expected the badlands to be, with steep bare cliffs with many different layers of rocks. This area was famous for coal mining from the early 1900s to the 1950s. As in other areas, coal mining was pretty brutal with workers underpaid and working in terrible conditions. One of the special features of this area are the "Hoodoos" along one of the cliffs. They are formed when a block of harder stone protects the softer stone underneath as the surrounding stone is eroded.
From there we traveled to Brooks which is near the Dinosaur Provincial Park, our destination for tomorrow. Along the way we passed quite a large wind farm with over 30 large wind turbines. Some of the farmers must do pretty well between the leases for the wind turbines and the oil and gas wells that dot the fields.
We are staying at the Econolodge which is pretty basic basic but adequate and good value. We had a delicious dinner at the Mango Tree restaurant next door, an Indian Restaurant.
Day 9 route
Canadian Mounties at Calgary Gay Parade
HooDoos near Drumheller
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