After
leaving the Custom Woolen Mills we headed for Torrington to see the
Gopher Hole Museum which was high on Natali's list of things to show
us. This is a small building full of dioramas of taxidermied ground
squirrels dressed up in costume to represent the industry and
activity in the Torrington area and gets 10,000 visitors a year.
This is a must see my friends. Well worth the $2 price of admission.
outside
the Gopher Hole Museum, Catharine, Denise, Natali, actual real
people, not stuffed
From
there we headed out to find the road to the Dry Island Buffalo Jump
where the First Nations would run the buffalo over a cliff, one of
several in Alberta, but we couldn't find it so we pulled into Torlen
Campground for a picnic lunch. While Natali and Denise set out the
fare, Catharine and I moseyed along the bank of the Red Deer River
looking at rocks.
wheat,
flax, and canola
After
lunch we headed into the Bad Lands, a transition so abrupt that we
turned a corner and went from green fields to raw rock and hoodoos.
hoo-doos
This
area is famous for it's dinosaur fossils and so we headed to
Drumheller, home of the Royal Tyrell Museum (which we didn't actually
go in) where we walked around on one of the interpretive trails
a
living ground squirrel
and
then to see the biggest dinosaur in the world.
On
our way back to Calgary we made one last stop at Horse Shoe Canyon.
Back
at home base, we settled in with martinis, dinner, and a Skype call
with Leigh, our one from Australia.
What an amazing fun filled trip.
ReplyDeleteThe plus side is you're sharing the wonderful sites with me.
some amazing canyons.
ReplyDeleteI adore the gopher hole museum. That just charms the hell out of me.
ReplyDeleteAnd then...dinosaurs?
Too awesome. Thanks.
Ah, hoodoos. Shades of Wile E Coyote.
ReplyDeleteThat gopher museum is just a hoot - so imaginative! Love all that scenery too...
ReplyDeleteThose stuffed gophers are interesting, but bizarre.
ReplyDeleteI have been there...but missed the gopher museum. My loss. I love that vast wilderness of the Drumheller.
ReplyDeleteI love that ground squirrel museum. Totally bizarre. I'm glad you got a chance to see some live ones, too! :)
ReplyDeleteLOVE the dinosaur. That's just the kind of tacky thing I love stumbling onto when I travel.
I remember hoodoos from my own visit to Banff years ago.
From the tiny to the enormous. Can't help thinking about all the gophers who bit the big one for that museum, which still looks fascinating.
ReplyDeleteLove the Badlands. We worked burning 5000 acres one summer. The head of the burns was son to the fellow who put the roads in and planted non-native species along to keep down erosion. I worked another year with a National Geographic crew out of TN.
ReplyDelete