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