Dinosaur Provincial Park

We drove 166 miles to stay at our next spot.  The day started out with a light shower but ended with beautiful sunshine.  Our destination was the Dinosaur Provincial Park about 45km from the small town of Brooks, AB.

 Most of us arrived about 1:00pm and waited in their parking lot.  We were told we could not go into the camping area until 2:00pm, when the other campers were supposed to leave.   At 2:00pm we all caravanned into the group camping area we were assigned, but unfortunately the previous campers had not left.  In fact they weren’t even ready to leave.

We called the ranger and he notified them that they were supposed to leave.  It took us another hour for them to leave and us to finally get settled in.  If any of you are planning on staying at an Alberta Provincial Park I would suggest that you not even get there until 4:00pm.

 I have a beautiful site with lots of sun for the solar panels and the Badlands in the distance.

Chica and I were napping in the afternoon when Linda came pounding on the door telling me to come out and check something out.  It was John and he was on a very high spot overlooking our campground.  I hurriedly grabbed my camera and we both hiked up to meet John.  This was our view from up there.

This is the plateau we were on.

And this is a pic of the river.

Coulee Viewpoint Trail

The trail we were hiking is called the Coulee Viewpoint Trail.  It is only .9km long, but climbs to ridge tops with beautiful views.  We even saw some hoodoos.

Since it was late in the day we decided to come back in the morning and hike the remainder of the trail.  Again we had spectacular views.

Here is a pic of the river as it winds it’s way through the campground.

Hiking among beautiful rock formations.

The rock formations were really great!

Lots of nice flowers

Several different types of flowers were in bloom.  These pics are a bit out of focus because of the wind blowing at the time.

Another bonebed

Later John and I hopped in the car and drove a loop trail that wound through the Badlands.  They had displays of bone beds where the dinosaurs were actually found and left.  They enclosed them in a glass house so you can look in and see them.  It was neat to see them in the original state as they found them.

I have never truly been interested in dinosaurs that much and I probably didn’t get much more information then watching the movie Jurassic Park.  But these last 4 days have really peaked my interest.  Being able to travel through this area known to have many dinosaur fossil grounds was really something.

I know these pics do not really do it justice, as you really have to been here to see the scope of it all.  But I hope you also were able to enjoy them as well.