Dinosaur Provincial Park - Drumheller

A cloudy sunrise today!

There's a bunny next door!

We had breakfast, took down the wet tent and headed northwest to Drumheller.  We had hoped to visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum today, but it's closed on Mondays so we have decided to repack for the plane today and hit the Museum first thing tomorrow.

 

The back areas we're in today are in a wetlands area so lots of small lakes all along the way.  Lots of ducks in the ponds.  It was a lot of flat prairie but as we got closer to Drumheller we were back in badlands scenery...not as dramatic as yesterdays but still interesting.  You knew you were getting close to Drumheller as the countless dinosaur models began appearing.  About 65 million years before Sam Drumheller began promoting the 1910 townsite later named for him, the surrounding Red Deer Valley was the home of immense dinosaurs.  Plant-eating hadrosaurs, flesh-eating tyrannosaurs and their formidable cousins stomped through the swampy lowlands and forests bordering the Mowery Sea.  Fossils are discovered here also, thought not in the numbers found in the Park.  There was also a lot of coal mining beginning in 1911 but it has all but disappeared though you can still see some of the old mines.  But the lifesize T-Rex built over the top of the Chamber of Commerce pretty much defines the city with the exception of the world renowed Royal Tyrrell Museum.  But that's for tomorrow.  We checked out the few motels that are in town and decided on one and began unpacking everything from the car....everything! 

We had the heat punched up and ponchos over the spreads so we could dry out the tents and we tried to put things in areas of the room so everything alike would go in together.  So much stuff!

John talked to the staff here and asked if they would be interested in the cooler, water container and extra food we could not take on the plane and they said yes - thank goodness!!  It was a win-win situation.  We had worked the food down pretty well but had eaten out more than we expected during the last week so had some refrigerated food as well as some canned goods left.  Also the propane for the stove had to stay behind.  We spent all afternoon and a little of the evening getting it all packed into the 4 duffles and we did it - 47 pounds each!  The one with the sleeping bags and pads will explode if they open it for inspection...good luck getting it back in there guys!:-)  John took a break in the afternoon and headed to the carwash to clean the car inside and out...very dusty from all those dirt roads.  There was a pizza place next door to the restaurant that was calling to us so we headed over there for dinner and then hit the hay early so we can get up early, pack the car and hit the Museum for the 9:30 opening.  Busy day.  Can't believe this journey is almost over!