Dinosaurs, Hoo doos & the Badlands

(Sounds like a great children's book title!)

This weekend we visited Alberta's Badlands.

Drumheller, Alberta has the world's largest town mascot - a towering dinosaur (that you have to pay to climb up for a view from the dino's mouth. We didn't.). Mia was singularly unafraid, but played the part of mockingly terrified well for a photo! It's way bigger than it looks in this photo at 86 feet tall!

The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology is one of the world's finest dinosaur museums, with lots of bones! It's amazing to think that T. Rex and Stegosauri roamed around these parts long ago. Definitely worth a visit if you're anywhere nearby.

We hiked the loop by the RTM and it was lovely, with the characteristic "popcorn rock" of bentonite clay and views of the gorgeous badlands, but we were swarmed by the little bloodsuckers. Mia was wrapped up in her carrier and a blanket and hat, so didn't get bitten at all.

The Hoo Doos, however, are probably not as awesome as you might expect. I mean, they sound awesome, right? Like something out of L. Frank Baum's Oz books! I expected the Wheelers to roll out from behind every corner. Alas, there was no Wheeler in sight (or maybe not; as I recall, they weren't very nice). The Hoo Doos are pillars of soft rock, topped by a hard one - creations of erosion. There are only a few at the location and the mosquitos are insane.
They do look cool.