7/22/16 Alberta Canada Plains – Dinosaurs (again) and Cowboys

After almost three weeks in Glacier National Park and its sister park in Canada, Waterton Lakes National Park, we left the mountains and headed east to the Alberta Canadian Plains. Usually the weather is warmer, and we were looking forward to finally wearing shorts and tee shirts to enjoy some warm sunny days.   

Badlands Below Plains, Dinosaur Provincial Park

Both of our first two stops were in the Canadian Badlands, which have unique coulee landscapes and hoodoo rock formations, usually located below the grassy prairie rim in canyons which are not visible until you are literally at the rim.   This region in Alberta is famous for rich deposits of fossils, including dinosaur bones, unearthed at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Dinosaur Provincial Park near Brooks and showcased at the world-class Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller.  

The Badlands of this area of the plains are unique because they are the erosional results of the geologically “recent” merging and subsequent melting of the two great glaciers that covered North America – the Cordilleran Ice Sheet which covered the Rocky Mountains and the western lobe of the Laurentide Ice Sheet which covered much of Canada, about 20,000 to 14,000 years ago.   As we have seen in Glacier National Park and will see in the Canadian Rockies, glaciers are the dominate force and finishing touch to the landscape we see today. 

Dinosaur Fossils "in-situ", Dinosaur Prov Park

The Dinosaur Provincial Park near Brooks is a dramatic example of a Plains Badlands.  We saw burial clusters or swarms of bones in ancient stream beds and fossil digs still being excavated.  We also remember this park because we were the only America license tag in the small campground on July 4^th.  Several Canadians wished us Happy Independence Day. 

 

 

Approaching Prairie Storm

Also memorable were the thunderstorms and lighting shows that rolled through every 1.5 to 2 hours for days on end.  We have now experienced the stories about prairie storms; the lighting displays were awesome to watch through our motorhome windshield.  We were very glad we were not in a tent like so many others.  

 


These visits would complete our exploration of the fossil-filled sedimentary rock from the Cretaceous Period. Many of the fossils are found around the ancient edges (land/sea interface) of the vast inland seas of that Period.  The Western Interior Seaway, also called the Cretaceous Seaway and the North American Inland Sea, was a huge inland sea that split the continent of North America into two parts during most of the Cretaceous Period, from about 145 to 66 million years ago. By 100 million years ago, in the early to mid-Cretaceous, the Rockies were emerging from where the Western Interior Seaway had lain before mountain-building forced it further northeast.

The Cretaceous was a period with relatively warm climate, resulting in high sea levels which caused numerous inland shallow seas.  These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles and fishes, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land. At the same time, new groups of mammals and birds, as well as flowering plants, appeared. The Cretaceous ended with a large mass extinction, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.  

As a note, there have been several large mass extinctions, not just this one which is well known and thought to have been caused by an asteroid contact. The largest include: 444 million years ago, 86% of species lost (Appalachian uplift followed by much lower seas); 375 million years ago, 75% of species lost (new land plants causing algae bloom in oceans with loss of ocean oxygen) ; 251 million years ago, 96% of species lost (Siberian eruption with increased temps and hydrogen sulfide poisoning);  200 million years ago, 80% of species lost (unknown); 66 million years ago, 76% of all species lost (possible asteroid impact).  

Our fossil-exploring locations have now included:

Grand Escalante Staircase Visitor Center, Page, AZ

Dinosaur National Monument, UT /CO border

Fossil Butte National Monument, Kemmerer, WY

Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument, Hagerman, ID

Dinosaur Provincial Park, Brooks, Alberta, Canada

The Royal Tyrell Museum, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

As you can see from the  above map, these locations are all on the western edge of the North American Inland Sea. 

Bob and Linda under T Rex Fossil

 

We enjoyed learning about the relative time frames for all these geologic events and periods.  The absolutely best presentation was at the Royal Tyrell Museum which takes you through the vastness of time with a sequential display of the various geologic periods and their representative flora and fauna.  You can actually understand how evolution has progressed through the ages right up to recent loss of ice age animals such as mastodons and sabre tooth tigers, and the advent of man.  As Christians, we believe our God and Creator works in marvelous ways to make this planet and universe.  

 

 

Representation Head-Bashed-In Buffalo Jump

 

The Plains are also known for several buffalo “jumps” such as the “Head-Bashed-In-Buffalo-Jump” Provincial Park which we visited just west of Ft. MacLeod.  A Buffalo Jump is where the First Nations, prior to guns and horses, herded hundreds to thousands of bison over a high cliff to plunge to their deaths.  Every part of the bison was used; even most of the bones were used for tools and medicine.  After guns arrived with the white man, Buffalo Jumps were no longer needed when they could easily shoot the bison.  The bison herds were almost eliminated when buffalo coats were in vogue in Europe and back east.  Thank goodness for Yellowstone National Park when we can see animal herds in “natural” ecosystems.   

We moved from the intellectual stimulation of geology and paleontology (which also included a lot of enjoyable hikes), to the pursuit of cowboys, rodeo, and the midway at the Calgary Stampede, the largest rodeo in the world, held annually in Calgary, Alberta.  Our timing was perfect; we were in Calgary for some needed RV repairs while Stampede was ongoing. 

Chuck Wagon in Stampede Parade

In between two RV repairs and a much needed dental cleaning, we had the opportunity to enjoy the opening day parade for the Stampede, which is billed as “Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth” (this was the largest parade we have been to since we attended the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City in the mid-80s). 

 

"Cow Head" Pooper Scooper, Stampede Parade

The annual Stampede Parade is a showcase of cowboy and First Nations cultures, complete with the Stampede Queen and her Court, floats, dancers, marching bands, live music, and lots of horses, with the necessary pooper scoopers sprinkled throughout the parade to keep the streets “clean” J. While in Panama in January 2016 we met a former Stampede Queen; it was fun to communicate with her during the week and to see her ride her horse in the Queen’s Alumni section of the parade.

Bareback Bronc Ride, Stampede

After the parade, we attended the opening day afternoon rodeo (held every afternoon for 10 days) with the usual rodeo events:  tie-down roping, team roping, steer wrestling, saddle bronc riding, bareback bronc riding, bull riding and barrel racing.  It was fun to watch the real professionals (interestingly, many/most? from the US), but we had a closer look at what was going on inside the chutes (loading the cowboys onto the animals) at the local rodeo we attended in Cody, WY a few weeks ago.

The 10-day Stampede also included free pancake breakfasts at various locations in Calgary every day (we attended just one), and live music venues (music was played almost everywhere).  Bob’s baseball cap was a rare sight as every man and woman wore cowboy hats, even the anchorman on TV news.  During Stampede, everyone is a cowboy or cowgirl.   We loved the spirit, but does a hat make a cowboy?  We think NOT. We spent one afternoon on the midway, looking at the various wacky and wonderful foods.  We stayed with one of our favorites, BBQ, rather than try deep-fried Oreos or the new deep-fried bacon-wrapped peanut butter covered in chocolate ???  

Chuck Wagon Races, near finish, Stampede

After our afternoon (Senior’s Day with free admission) on the midway and seeing fantastic exhibits we went to the evening show to see what turned out to be our favorite event - the Chuck Wagon Races.  The event started when chuck wagons accompanied the cowboys driving cowherds to Alberta from the south, sometimes all the way from Texas.  The races evolved when the cooks in their chuck wagons started “racing” to be the first to set up at the end of the day and the first to have meals ready to eat, to the now famous Stampede chuck wagon races.  We don’t know if they are held anywhere else.  It is exciting to see 4 large wagons with huge wheels compete in each heat (8 heats per night):  4 wagons with a driver, pulled by 4 horses each, and followed by 2 horse riders behind each wagon to simulate the cowboys trying to be the first to get to the food.  The entire race is pandemonium with wagons, horses and riders in very close quarters racing around a mile long oval track.  A rollover is not unusual.  If you have a chance to watch one, definitely do so (you can google the Stampede and watch online).



Another Approaching Storm over Alberta Canola Fields

The only thing bad about our time in the plains and Calgary was the weather. With the exception of a few days, it rained a lot, and was cold (mid 50s for a high) (News said it was the wettest Stampede in many years, 9 out of 10 days it poured rain, but lucky for us, not on the parade day).  The usually warm weather we expected was nowhere to be found.  Hopefully, the weather will return to the more normal pattern found in the summer soon...we are tired of wearing fleeces, sweatshirts and raingear!

We are now headed to the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Alberta and British Columbia, and their national parks:  Banff, Jasper, Kootenay, and Yoho National Parks.  We met and skied in Banff and Lake Louise 36 years ago, but it will be great to actually see the mountains without so much snow.

We thank God for his blessings and our safety as we continue our travels.

Linda and Bob

7-5-16 Glacier/Waterton National Peace Parks (Montana and Canada)

After almost four weeks in the Wyoming Rocky Mountains (Grand Tetons and Yellowstone), we travelled north to Glacier National Park, and its Canadian sister Waterton Lakes National Peace Park for two weeks. The parks encompass the same Rocky Mountain Range, but Glacier NP is much larger, while Waterton is a small section on the north side of the border. 

Glacier NP from Going to the Sun Road

Glacier National Park was set up with the true outdoor experience in mind.  There is only one road that traverses the park; the “Going to the Sun Road” was built 1921 to 1932.  It was originally built using only manual labor,  but later they had to resort to machinery to keep the costs down (surprise, surprise).  Most of the access into the park is up small (many gravel) roads to glacial lakes with lot of hikes going into the mountains.  Since it is never known in advance when the “Going to the Sun Road” will open (sometimes there is so much snow it doesn’t open until mid-July), we booked part of our time on the west side and part on the east side so we could access all the lakes and hikes we wanted.  It is a two hour drive around the south end of the park from one side to the other. Luckily, the “Going to the Sun Road” opened four days after we arrived at the park.

The campgrounds in Glacier are all primitive, but there are two beautiful old lodges in the park; McDonald Lodge (well worth visiting for an Irish coffee on a rainy morning) and the Many Glacier Lodge (don’t miss the photo exhibit in the hallway showing the retreat history of the park glaciers).  Since the park is so remote (far northwestern corner of Montana), services directly outside the park are limited.  Even grocery stores are an hour away, so provision well if camping.  One day, on the eastern side, we had to drive over one hour to reach a notary and UPS service. 

Bob at the Lewis Overthrust Front Edge

The mountains of Glacier National Park are discussed in most older geology books (like when Bob was in college back in the dark ages of Continental Drift as opposed to modern Plate Tectonics) as a recognized thrust fault and “unconformity”, but without the benefit of the more recent knowledge of plate tectonics as the driving causative force.  Basically, the mountains of the parks are composed of Pre-Cambrian rocks (1.4 billon years old) which were pushed 65 miles over 150,000 million years to finally reside on much younger Cretaceous rocks (only 70 million years young); the horizontal fault between the two is known as the Lewis Overthrust Fault. 



We now understand this movement was due primarily to plate tectonics.  The older rocks of The Pacific Plate were “overthrust” over younger rocks of the North American Plate.  This caused the mountains to rise up and in many locations buckle greatly. However, while some of the Pre-Cambrian sedimentary rocks have been altered somewhat, the original horizontal bedding and structure of the sedimentary rocks are very evident throughout both parks.  We were able to actually see and “touch” the eastern end of the Lewis Overthrust Fault (Bob got excited – how sad is that?).  It is still moving east, so watch out.

 

St. Mary Lake, Glacier

However, as much as the rocks are interesting and the tall steep mountains are beautiful, it is the last ice age (13,000 years ago) that carved the mountains into the beautiful scenery we see today. Glacier National Park is named, not for the glaciers that are there now or in the past, but for the spectacular glacial-caused landscape of peaks, valleys and lakes we see today. Lake McDonald is over 500 feet deep. The US Glacier NP was established in 1910.  In 2005, there were only 25 glaciers and decreasing every year; down from 150 glaciers in the 1850s.  As a note, there was another warm period after the last ice age, where there were no glaciers; however, glaciers reformed and now are disappearing again.  It is a continuing process.



Going to Sun Road in the Clouds

The mountains are so tall (6 peaks over 10,000 feet) they form their own weather.  Most of the days, the peaks were in the clouds.  On the west side (the windward side), the weather while we were there was mostly overcast, cold and damp.  On the east side, the weather was generally clearer, with warmer and mostly sunny days and chilly nights, but windy.  During our stay, there were only two days where the peaks were out of the clouds.  We drove the Going to the Sun Road both sunny days to get beautiful pictures of the snow-capped peaks (it was still snowing at the tops some days we were there).   

Hanging Valley Waterfall, Glacier

 

 

 

 

We hiked a lot here.  The glacial topography causes lots of waterfalls from hanging valleys and beautiful aqua to clear blue glacial lakes (depending on whether the water is coming from snow melt or glacial melt). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Moose grazing Trailside, Glacier

 

 

We FINALLY saw not just one, but two moose on a single hike; one young female wading and drinking in a lake, and a large male eating bushes about 30 feet off a trail.  It took 14,000 miles (since Maine where Moose are supposed to be prevalent) and over 1 year to finally see a moose!

 

 

 

Mountain Goat sheading winter coat, Logan Pass, Glacier

 

 A mountain goat visited Linda and our car on her photo trek at the top Logan Pass of Going to the Sun Road. Apparently, the goats like to lick the side of cars for salt.  We also saw a few bears on the side of the road.   

 

 

 

BigHorn Sheep, Waterton Lake

 

 

We saw lots of deer, some elk, and even four big horn sheep.  The wildflowers were in full bloom, everywhere; the fields and lower mountainside were all ablaze with color.

 

 

 

Meadow Wildflowers, Waterton Lakes NP



 

Off-the-Grid Downtown Polebridge

On the eastern side, we visited Polebridge – a small off-the-grid “town”.  No electricity or phones.  Lot of solar panels, batteries, and propane.  The Polebridge Mercantile is a well-known bakery.  Huckleberries are a big thing locally so we had coffee and huckleberry threats. Linda made the better choice of a huckleberry bar, while Bob had a huckleberry bearclaw.  This was in addition to the $27 huckleberry pie we had purchased earlier in the week. Huckleberries are good, but not good enough for another pie at that price.

 

Although in the same mountain range, The Canadian Waterton Lakes National Park is very different from the US Glacier Park National Park.  The Canadians have turned their portion of the national park into a resort-like setting.  The campground is full service, and the “Townsite” includes lots of hotels, restaurants, and shops in the town.  Many of the hikes are very developed with pavement and exhibits,  and not very long. 

 

M/V International at US/Canada Border Control

We really enjoyed a scenic ride on the M/V International, a 1927 historic wooden tour boat.  We rode the entire length of Upper Waterton Lake across the border to the US end at Goat Haut.  If you are going to hike from Goat Haut, you have to clear through an immigration/customs stop at the end of the lake.  It is the smallest of all US Border crossing.

 

Prince of Whales Overlooking Upper Waterton Lake

The mountains in Waterton are lower and there are no glaciers in the Canadian side of the park.  The weather is typically colder and very windy, but we were lucky with no wind and warm weather during our stay.  We actually wore shorts for the first time since a few days in Utah. We really thought the Prince of Wales Hotel (historic lodge) was beautiful and had the best location of all park lodges.  You can even enjoy Afternoon Tea in the British fashion with a fabulous view of the mountains across the lake. 

We enjoyed the change from rustic camps to the resort feel of Townsite with an occasional afternoon or evening ice cream within a short walk from the campground.  The town itself is overridden with deer; they are even brazen enough to graze in the children’s park, only a few feet from screaming, running kids.  We were in Waterton on Canada Day (Canada’s Independence Day on July 1), as the hordes were streaming into the park.  We departed on Saturday, July 2, and were very thankful to be going against the continuous stream of cars entering the park. 

 

We will miss an extra feature of the US National Parks we discovered by accident in the Tetons National Park and enjoyed in Yellowstone and Glacier. There is an organization called Christian Ministry in the National Parks which is a group of young people who are working summers in the concessions of all the parks. We attended their Sunday services at the park amphitheaters.  They are not allowed to actively advertise their services, but well worth the effort to find them when you are in a national park on a Sunday morning or evening.  

 

We’ve enjoyed our time in Glacier and Waterton National Parks, and are now headed to the Alberta Plains and Badlands, and then Calgary for Stampede, the largest rodeo in the world.

 

Best, 

Linda and Bob