The Rare Writer: Drumheller 2022 part 1

Tuesday, 12 July 2022

Drumheller 2022 part 1 - Around the City

It's taken me nearly a month to start writing this, but there's just been so much great stuff to include, I haven't known where to start, so this will probably be post one of two, maybe even three!

My Dad and I left from Ottawa on a Tuesday evening and, after a turbulent, frigid, and nauseating four-hour flight, landed in Calgary. We got to our hotel, enjoyed a very late, but very good dinner, and crashed. The next morning we had breakfast and drove to Drumheller.

I was just starting to get depressed by an hour and a half drive through the flattest, most boring farmland I've ever seen when, suddenly, just before Drumheller, the geography changed to reveal this:

!!!

We had flown in on the tail end of a bad, week-long hurricane system, so day 1 was a mix of cold rain and gale-force winds. But, this being a Bucket list trip and all, I braved the weather and was able to avoid getting blown over long enough for a photo at the city's entrance. (See pic at top)

We got there before the Royal Tyrrell Museum opened, so we took the time to get a coffee, find our hotel, and drive around. That itself was an adventure! Drumheller is a city that definitely knows its audience. If you're not into dinosaurs or mining, it's probably not for you. I, however, was overjoyed. There were dinosaurs EVERYWHERE!!

Every street corner had some kind of creature painted to reflect a certain theme or location, like their arena, fire hall, and other random places.

My favourite!

The streets in their downtown were named after dinosaurs.

They even had the world's largest dinosaur.

Also this on a strip mall's signage, which was adorable.

It was then time for our pre-booked museum visit (staggered admittance because COVID), so we drove there. That's a post in itself, because WAY too many photos and details for this one!

After the museum we went to the Last Chance Saloon, an old restaurant/hotel my uncle had told us to check out.

Decent food and cool history, but the décor was the best part. The saloon was covered wall to wall in stuff. Old mining paraphernalia, a couple bullet holes from an especially storied incident, and all kinds of animals.