Coulee View Trail, September 6

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It didn’t rain overnight, so we hiked the Coulee View trail, which starts from the visitor centre, this morning.  First though we registered for the bus tour of the restricted part of the park for this afternoon.  It was a good thing that it hasn’t rained, for the clay of the coulee would be impossible if it was wet.  At several of the steeper spots they’ve put up stairs, sometimes metal grates, but the clay would still be incredibly slippery on the steep slopes.  It was much cooler as well this morning, so it was a nice hike.

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I’d taken the cell phone with me, and at the top of the hills it received signal.  We were able to read and respond to a couple of emails.  I will probably hike back there tonight so that I can post this blog.

After we came down from this trail we hiked from our campsite to the Cottonwood Trail.  This is a very flat hike that forms a circle loop near the Red Deer River.  Some of the ancient cottonwoods are massive, several feet in diameter, and they are estimated to be over 200 years old.  They don’t grow very tall though, as they wouldn’t be more than 20 feet high.

At a little after 1:00 we headed up to the museum at the visitor centre which has we visited until we boarded the bus at 3:00 for the Explorers bus tour.   The bus tour wasn’t as good as I’d hoped as we had little time off the bus to view the scenery. At the four stops we did have, we spent much of the time listening to talks about the explorers, most of it information we already knew.  The third stop was good though as they have an almost intact skeleton of a duck billed dinosaur. The next stop was also good as it featured some spectacular hoodoos.

It has gotten much cooler this afternoon and a lot of cloud has rolled in. We were worried that it was going to rain as we left the roof vents open in the trailer. Fortunately it has not started yet, but it is much cooler than this morning and quite windy.

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