Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: hoodoos

"Hoodoos take millions of years to form and stand 5 to 7 metres tall. Each hoodoo is a sandstone pillar resting on a thick base of shale that is capped by a large stone. Hoodoos are very fragile and can erode completely if their capstone is dislodged (in other words, no climbing allowed). This protected Hoodoos site is a guaranteed spot to see Hoodoos but smaller versions of these sandstone giants can be found all over the Badlands. The name "Hoodoo" comes from the word "voodoo" and was given to these geological formations by the Europeans. In the Blackfoot and Cree traditions, however, the Hoodoos are believed to be petrified giants who come alive at night to hurl rocks at intruders." From traveldrumheller.com www.traveldrumheller.com/index.php/directory/7-Drumheller... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoodoo_ (geology) Wow, what a day I had the day before yesterday, 5 August 2019! For a few decades, I had longed to get out east of the city again, to the Badlands of Alberta. I had been a few times in more recent years, either on botany trips to Horseshoe Canyon, or a couple of times for the Christmas Bird Count. However, we always carpooled and we never went to the places I really, really wanted to go to. Finally, in 2014, I took my daughter out there, taking the main highway into Drumheller. She has an amazing sense of direction and is great at navigating, so I knew I wouldn't get lost. This time, though, I wanted to avoid Drumheller itself, so I took a back way to the few places and things I wanted to see and photograph. Each year, I try and make a new, long drive that I have never done before. Trust me, a real challenge to someone with a driving phobia!! Now, there are a handful of places that I make myself get back to each summer, to make sure I don't lose the courage to make the drive by myself. Maps had been made, a few 'drives' taken along a few bits of road on Google Earth, so I was well-prepared. Still, I felt sick to the stomach at the thought of doing the last half of the drive. If I happened to take one wrong road, would I ever get out of the Badlands? When I checked the weather forecast, I noticed that rain was expected on some upcoming days, but not for that day, so I knew I needed to go. It was still quite hazy all day, getting up to 30C. When I was almost ready to leave home, I suddenly realized that it was a public holiday! Never a good time to visit anywhere, with so many people everywhere. Normally, I would have stayed home. Left home at 8:45 am and got back home at 7:15 pm, after driving 402 km, using roughly three-quarters of a tank of gas. In this time, I was able to see my favourite hoodoos (with so many cars parked along the road and endless people climbing all over the hoodoos), a little almost-ghost town, and one of my absolute favourite old grain elevators. My route also took me past the Bethlehem Lutheran Church of Dalum - I had seen photos of this church before and I had always wanted to photograph a church like this. One other stop had been on my mental list, but, even though I would have had time to get there, my big concern was running out of gas on the way home. There was only one unpleasant thing that happened and it still keeps coming to mind. Along one of the paved roads on the way to the Badlands, I had noticed a very scruffy looking hawk standing on the road. I turned around and drove back to see if I could check if it was OK. Just when I was going to pull over so that I could slowly walk back, I looked in the rear view mirror and there was a car coming behind me. Not sure if the driver tried to position his wheels so that they were either side of the hawk, or not. Anyway, the bird tried to fly and got caught up by the car, which ripped and mangled it. I could see it being tossed and caught back. I walked back to see if I could tell if it was still alive. I couldn't tell, but it was a real mess. Much as I would have liked to move it to the ditch, I couldn't. Trying to convince myself that, because it had looked so scruffy to start with, and stayed on the road, maybe it had been sick. I have seen plenty of dead wildlife of all kinds, but never before have I had to witness something actually being killed. Still haunts me. Yesterday, 6 August 2019, my daughter and I had planned to spend the day together but decided to cancel, as the forecast was for rain and it's no fun taking photos in the rain. Such a shame, as I had been looking forward to being out with her. Her free days are so few and far between. Sure enough, 4:30 pm and we had torrential rain, wind and thunder - SO glad we weren't out in this! Today, it is very overcast - happy I decided to do my long drive two days ago.

Spent the whole day, from about 6:45 a.m.. (to those of you who know me well, yes, A.M.!) till early evening, on a Christmas Bird Count east of the city, in the Drumheller area. I hadn't been out this way for maybe 12 years, so I REALLY appreciated the chance to be driven out there today! Not a bad day weather-wise, though it was very cold. Dropped down to -21C, but had soared to a balmy -4C when we got back to Calgary. "Rolling fields suddenly give way to steep, dry coulees ridged with the strata of hundreds of years of erosion by time, wind and water. Through it all, the tranquil Red Deer River gently makes its way through parkland and myriad of recreational opportunities." From www.dinosaurvalley.com . The excavation of many dinosaur remains here and in the Dinosaur Provincial Park is known of world-wide. I had never seen this area covered in a light dusting of snow before. I posted a couple of photos ages ago, showing the eroded Hoodoo formations. "Drumheller is a town (formerly a city) on the Red Deer River in the Badlands of east-central Alberta, Canada. It is located 110 kilometres (68 mi) northeast of Calgary. Drumheller has been the filming location for more than 50 commercials, music videos and cinematic productions including Shanghai Noon, Unforgiven, Knockaround Guys and Rat Race. South of the traffic bridge on Highway 9 north and south one can find the World's Largest Dinosaur, a 26.2 metres (86 ft) high Tyrannosaurus rex that can be entered for a view of the Badlands, including the adjacent 23 metre (75 ft) water fountain, again one of the largest in Canada. The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology is a museum that hosts Canada's largest collection of dinosaur fossils. It boasts 350,000 visitors a year, the largest of all provincial museum attractions. The Royal Tyrrell Museum is located in the northwest quadrant of the Town of Drumheller, in Midland Provincial Park." From Wikipedia. Actually, I dashed into the Museum and bought my grandson a black T-shirt with a Glow-in-the-dark dinosaur skeleton design on it in white : ).