Adventurers: Crystal Kirkham, Naomi De Bruyn, Katrina Florence
Region: Drumheller, Alberta, Canada
This might be a little confusing as I’m going to mash a couple of points of view here, just due to the fact that there is some great stuff from both of us… we will get this figured out and smoothed out as we go along, but for now, please just bear with us as we clamber to the heights and plunge to the depths of Alberta’s Badlands.
Friday, April 17th 2015
ALSIKE, AB
Naomi:
My bags are packed, I’m ready to go … ( to the tune of ‘Leaving on a Jet Plane’ by Peter, Paul & Mary, or John Denver, or even Chantal Kreviazuk)
I am filled with excitement — the unknown, a new setting & experience. I’m also filled with trepidation — away from home, so much can go wrong both with me and at home.
I definitely need new gear for backpacking. I’ve got this HUGE pile by the door and it’s really bugging me. We are only going for the weekend, after all! Ultralight equipment will be really nice! Thankfully this is a camping trip, but backpacking is being planned!
Katrina showed up and we loaded my gear into her van, we stopped once to get the tires checked, due to a gauge repeatedly lighting up. Better safe than sorry, and it’s only a moment to check the pressure. Tires were fine, so something was malfunctioning with the sensor.It took awhile, but finally we hit Highway 20 and followed it South. Red Deer bound, with our humour intact and no serious expectations; just a wonderful sense of anticipation and excitement filling both of us.
RED DEER, AB
Crystal:
As I waited for Naomi and Kat to arrive at my place before hiking, I was feeling both elated and frightened. I was so excited that we were finally going to do this, but still couldn’t quite shake off the feeling that it might not happen. Months of talking and planning had brought us to this jump off point, but it was past the time that I had expected my partners-in-crime to arrive. Dinner was ready, a simple feast of salmon, asparagus and red rice, but there was no one else to eat it. So, I waited and I worried.
Over an hour past their projected arrival time, they finally arrived with a very good explanation as to the delay. Something about tire pressure and a sensor — to be honest I was barely listening. I was just happy that they had arrived safely.
Naomi was all for heading out to Drumheller that night, but it was already 2030, and that was the last thing I wanted to do. I knew, for me, rushing out would mean forgetting things, a long drive and setting up in the dark. It was not an idea I cherished after a long day at work and then a long drive.
Instead, we ate the lukewarm dinner that I had made, drank some wine and talked until it was far too late for us to be talking. Or, as Kat said before falling asleep, “I’m crashing here…”I, on the other hand, was horribly excited to finally go hiking and I could barely sleep. I tossed and turned most of the night, waking early to the sounds of my friends sleeping in the other room. I laid there in silence, wishing for sleep, until I heard the sounds of other people waking. That was my cue to get up and get on with this first day.
DAY TWO
Saturday, April 18th 2015
A quick and simple breakfast started us off before we packed up and headed off to Drumheller. Of course, before leaving Red Deer we made the required Canadian road trip stop at Tim Horton’s. We took Highway 595 east out of Red Deer, then headed south on Highway 21.
As we drove along in high spirits, talking about writing, writers and how insane we all are for even thinking of embarking on this journey, we passed a simple road sign. It said, ‘Dry Island Buffalo Jump.’
Do we…don’t we…?!?!
Within metres of passing it, Kat was told she had to see it or she might regret it for the rest of her life. She had never been to any buffalo jump before and had no idea what she was missing.
We turned around and took the side road.
DRY ISLAND BUFFALO JUMP
Gently rolling grasslands of the prairie follow the road along for a time, then suddenly vanish. The Red Deer River slices through a canyon, as it has for centuries. The beauty is awe inspiring as shadows play tag with the earth and the clouds, and the wind cuts like a knife. However, nothing will detract from the rugged beauty as we gaze across the divide at a grassy flat-topped mesa rising above the river.
Known as the Dry Island, this mesa was never surrounded by water. Streams carved gullies in the soft earth as they flowed toward the Red Deer River. Over the centuries, one of these gullies became so wide and deep that part of the prairie became the isolated mesa that you can see today.
As with much of the badlands there is history galore here, it is almost a palpable entity. This mesa was where the Plains Indians drove buffalo over the edge, 427 feet to their deaths. This mesa offered the People survival. It is a rather sobering thought as you realize that not only were the Native Indians able to survive in spite of this incredibly harsh land, but because of it.
We explored the upper parking area for a time, admiring the view and reading the information plaques for visitors. Then, we drove down the steep and curvy road, into the canyon. Each turn brought another incredible view to light, and something else to talk about with awe and excitement. For Crystal, each new ridge brought an urge to climb, but that would be for another time.
We made a decision that sometime in the future we would climb the mesa and look out over the canyon from a different viewpoint.
At the bottom we looked around a little and met one half of a couple who were kayaking the Red Deer and had chosen this particular area to camp for the night. They were using a hammock tent that is on our list of equipment to try out, but that won’t be this trip! We were all enthralled by the beauty, but none more so than Kat. She just kept uttering “Oh my gosh… Oh my gosh…” Sometimes there just are no words to capture the sentiment when something is overpowering and beyond imagining.We piled back into the van and headed up the side of the canyon, silence pretty much prevailing. Within moments, there was absolutely no trace of the canyons existence.
Recently there has been some excavating done here, resulting in dinosaur discoveries. Yes, dinosaurs! The Alberta Badlands are famous for them.
To quote Crystal – “Mother Nature writing a story in her own skin...”
...On to Drumheller in Part 2...
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