Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology

Our next destination was Drumheller, Alberta, to visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology.  This is a world class museum with a major focus on dinosaurs, so it is a wonderful place for children of all ages.

 

The museum has a nice collection of hypothetical reproductions.

They also have an amazing number of fully articulated skeletons on display.

A well armored dinosaur with fossilized skin impressions

 

A newborn dinosaur

A huge fish with sharp bone plates extending into its mouth instead of teeth

A large fossilized turtle

Stegosaurus

Triceratops

Tyrannosaurus

Getting much closer to us in geologic time we have Mastodons ...

... and Mammoths  ...

.. and Sabre-toothed Cats.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

After Glacier National Park, we headed to a campground in the little town of Granum in southern Alberta, Canada.  From here we visited the World Heritage historical site of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.  Here the native Blackfoot people killed buffalo by stampeding them over a cliff and then harvested them as their main resource.  They were also having a demonstration of native Blackfoot dancers in native regalia.

The accumulation of bones and natural erosion have reduced the height of the buffalo jump cliff to about half of the original height.

Four native drummers with two audience volunteers

Dancers

Glacier National Park - 2018

We have finally gotten back into travel mode.  After spending a few days in Salt Lake City for some genealogy and the 4th of July, we headed north to the west Glacier National Park area.  We had last been in Glacier in 2003, so felt it was about time to make a return visit.

Driving the Going-to-the-Sun Road provides dramatic vistas including mountains, waterfalls, streams, lakes and wildflowers.

Classic "U-shaped" glacier carved valley

Clements Mountain above Logan Pass

These hikers reminded us of the pictures of the Chilkoot Pass Trail near Skagway, Alaska during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush.

Lake McDonald

McDonald Creek

Wild Goose Island in Saint Mary Lake

Lake Sherburne colored by glacier sediment

A few of the many waterfalls

One of two tunnels on the Going-to-the-Sun Road

One of the many restored Red "Jammer" touring buses

Lunch stop with a view

A berry bush leaf with unusual coloring

A few of the many wildflowers we saw