walking trail (1999)

 

Walking Trail (1999)

When walking through the badlands adults can appreciate the unique barren beauty.

Children find it reminds them of the moon's surface, and they are also intrigued by the idea that this is where dinosaur bones are found.  Graveyards and dinosaurs are important to most children.

 

joantop.jpg 22 kb

My friend enjoys the view.

 

 

 

 

bike path 22 kb

 

This is a bike path which takes the biker from Drumheller to this point,
where it heads downhill to the museum.

 

 

 

 

 

badlball.jpg  17 kb

 

This strangely attractive photograph was taken from the top right part of
the previous photograph, next to the path.

 

 

 

 

museum tour   (17 kb)

This is the 1:30 Saturday walking tour which was held next to the museum.
The museum was quite busy on this day so there were a lot of
people around to take the tour.

 

 

 

museum tour   (13 kb)

 

The people on the left were asked to be mountains while the people on the right were asked to represent the ocean by doing the backstroke. This helped the crowd understand how the area was originally formed. During the tour, she explained about the badlands, valley, and hoodoos.

The presention was well done. That could be why so many people were taking part.

 

 

 

a sign on the badlands, about the badlands (25 kb)

 

These people are reading one of the signs on the self guided tour.
It explains how the badlands were formed.

 

 

 

 

a loop in the interpretive trail (17 kb)

 

This is another part of the interpretive trail.

 

 

Unfortunately, except for the bike path which runs to the Royal Tyrrell Museum from Drumheller, there aren't any longer hiking trails set up for the serious hiker.  I think it is assumed that hikers can find a lot of hills and badlands throughout the area to explore on their own.

 

However, the Horseshoe Canyon has a badland basin which is quite popular with tourists. At the South Viewpoint, people can hike down a hill and then through badlands. Also, at the interpretive center there is a hiking path; so you can chose from either the 1 km hike or the 3 km hike.

The Horseshoe Canyon is actually a set of canyons which form a horseshoe. That horseshoe shape is closed off at the top, so it becomes a large irregular shaped circle. Someday, if the owners gave permission and proper paths were built through these canyons, an entire circle hike could be done in about six hours. If you want to hike on a cool windy day, the valleys and coulees are ideal because they provide some warmth, and they keep you out of the wind.

map with links to photos of Horseshoe Canyon

You can click on this map of Horseshoe Canyon and go to a California Geocities Web site where there is a large map which links to photos of the different parts of the canyon. So you can explore the hiking and tourist potential for this unique land formation (55 kb) without leaving your computer.

Included is a link to a file which includes detailed information and advice on which parts of the Horseshoe Canyon area you might want to explore. While parts of those Canyons can be hiked, parts are dangerous and difficult, some is on private land, some is fenced off, and some is occupied by cows that would rather not be disturbed.

 

 

 

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©1999 Brian M. Brown All rights reserved.   All photographs are marked with almost invisible identifiers.