Yesterday we left Prince Albert shortly before noon, drove to Eston (which we reached around 3:30) and visited with Enid’s mother. We took her from the Jubilee Lodge to where we had set up our trailer, and had a nice barbeque for supper. Duane also came in, taking off some time from preparing for harvest, and we had a good visit on a beautiful evening.
This morning we stopped back at the lodge to visit for a bit, then left at very nearly 9 am. We headed west on highway 44, which got considerably worse as we got closer to the Alberta border. The GPS wanted to take us down highway 21, but we didn’t want to go that way, as we planned to join up with Alberta Highway 554. That road is in very good condition, so once we reached it, travel was a lot easier. One thing you need to be careful of on this route is to make sure you have enough fuel. There is none between Eatonia, SK and Jenner, AB, a distance of about km.
We got to Dinosaur Provincial Park at about 1:00 pm.
As we left the highway we were worried since the park sign said the campground was full. However, I’d checked on the Internet last night and it looked like there were many sites available. That turned out to be the case, and they simply haven’t changed the sign since the long weekend.
After setting up the trailer we went back to the information centre. There we got a brochure describing the short (3km) scenic drive and the hikes that depart from it. You can’t go into much of the park without an accompanying guide, and we had missed the only guided hike today (it was departing just as we arrived). We did hike around the badlands trails and enjoyed the scenery. There are also two places where they have erected shelter buildings over the remains of dinosaurs that are still in the ground, so we saw those old bones.
It was very warm today. The temperature was well over 30 C, probably close to 35. There was a light breeze, but it felt very warm while walking in the dry heat of the badlands. Tonight it has cooled off some, and there is a large threatening thundercloud building to the west. The forecast is for rain showers. If it does, we won’t be doing much hiking tomorrow on the slippery bentonite clay of the badlands.