Sunday, August 28, 2022

Dinosaur and a Visit with family and friends

On 25 Jun, we headed to Dinosaur Provincial Park, it's only about 50 km from Brooks, Alberta so we only had a short drive that day. It's wise to bring all that you need with you when going to Dinosaur as there isn't much close by; the camp store does have the basics though.  Dinosaur Prov Park is in what they call the Badlands and has more fossils than are to be found in the badlands up near Drumheller where the Royal Tyrell Museum is found. The nice thing about Dinosaur is that it is a small park so if you don't have a lot of time you won't feel like you've missed out. You have to go on guided tours to see where the fossil beds are but there is quite a bit of the park that is open to hikers and, who knows, you might just find some dinosaur bones.

We left Tillebrook before lunch so still arrived at Dinosaur before well before check in. There were no signs that you had to wait in the parking lot so after pulling up and going in to check in, where they told us to turn around and wait in the parking lot, we just drove  to our sites as we knew our sister was already on her site had printed out our reservations.

Dinosaur Provincial Park

Great nephews and great neice

Sharing campsites
We had three campsites all adjacent to one another and the night after we arrived a friend and her husband would join us. They were lucky enough to get a site right behind us for three nights.


There is a three kilometer road that you can drive around in the park; there are trails off it to view some dinosaur fossils. We drove that route one day, as well as hiked one of the trails and also went to the small museum at the visitors center.
















We left Dinosaur on 29 Jun to head to Airdrie where my sister lives. My youngest sister and her husband went to stay at her daughter's place in Airdrie and I followed my sister and her brother in law back to Airdrie to her place. We would stay in Airdrie for just over three weeks. During this time we would meet with family and friends. We would meet my newest great neice who was born on my mother's birthday. A friend of mine from Victoria, BC would also come for a short visit. 

While in Airdrie, we visited a little local museum and the Military Museums. We also went to a horse show at Spruce Meadows and went to walk around the Calgary Stampede. My friend and I also drove out to Banff and to Johnston's Canyon. 

Newest great neice

Another great nephew




Spruce Meadows



Show Jumping


The Military Museums




Front Entrance to the Military Museums
The drive out to Banff was really nice. I got the idea of going to Johnston Canyon from a Facebook post by someone in the Girl Camper group. Glad that she posted or I never would have known to go there. Johnston Canyon is quite a popular hike so it is rather crowded; it's two waterfalls but we only hiked to the first fall. That's only about a one kilometer hike on a paved pathway. The trail is dog friendly but since the trail is narrow if your dog isn't good with other dogs I wouldn't recommend taking them. We had  nice hike up the first waterfall and then drove back into Banff to walk around and have lunch.



















It was a nice break to spend time with family. We had BBQ's, celebrated birthdays, went shopping, to the zoo and the dogs got lots of walk on the neighbourhood walkways.
Third Birthday Cupcakes



Birthday Dinner

At the Calgary Zoo


Neighbourhood lake
But good times come to an end and all too soon it was time to start our journey back east. The journey back including travel out of the country for the first time in nearly two years will be the next installment.