After several long days on the road, we finally arrived in Calgary, Alberta. Here, we met up with Cheryl’s friend, Jen, again, and she was gracious enough to play tour guide.

On the first day, we went to downtown Calgary. I specifically wanted to see this city, home of the games dubbed the Calgary Stampede. My late husband, Myles, and his theater group had come there in 1978 to perform at the opening of the games with the Calgary Children’s Choir. I was otherwise occupied with a job and was unable to go with them, but I heard all about that trip. It had been 40-plus years, but I still wanted to lay eyes on where Myles and the kids had performed and had been awarded white hats for their efforts.

Jen took us down to the Stampede grounds, where there was also an ice arena, an agricultural education area, and a fairly large public gathering space with restaurants and other necessary conveniences. Calgary was getting ready to host the Rotary International Convention during our visit, but we were still able to move pretty freely around the area. I was delighted to be able to capture the essence of what Calgary looks like today and the city’s dedication to its cowboy culture.

Not too far from downtown was Fort Calgary, which was the beginning of the settlement of Calgary. The building wasn’t open, but we wandered the outdoor exhibits. Turns out the the Royal Canadian Mountain Police started as the Northwest Mounted Police and the uniforms they wear today are similar to the uniforms of old. Every time I think of the RCMP, I think of Dudley DoRight of cartoon fame. As I remember, he was from the west, but I had never realized that the RCMP started there.

Next, we went to the Fish Creek Provincial Park, which is known for its Listening Art Park. I was particularly impressed with the way this park utilizes art in the natural setting. They don’t overwhelm nature, but integrate art into it. For instance, they use paintings as pieces of bench supports. So the art incorporates into the park’s features — and is not just hung like in a museum. You can just be among it and take it all in without even really focusing on it. There are sculptures that seem to just fit into the site. The interpretation at the pieces is excellent, so you can tell what you are seeing if you care that know more.

The next day, we headed out for Dinosaur Provincial Park, Drumheller, and the Royal Tyrell Museum. Dinosaur National Park is dedicated to preserving the Badlands of Alberta, where a significant number of dinosaur fossils have been found. The Royal Tyrell Museum is basically a dinosaur museum whose story starts at the beginning of the creation of life on this planet. It walks visitors through the geological time periods and shows the change in evolutionary creatures that lived on the planet. 

And of course, we had to go by Dinosaur World, which is more of a children’s play area. But they have a large, did I say LARGE, dinosaur outside the building that (of course) I had to photograph. 

I was somewhat amazed at how much the Badlands Dinosaur Park resembled the Badlands of South Dakota. It was hot, the sun was shining brightly, and the rocks gave up no coolness. Because of that, I did not do the hiking that Jen was able to do, but I did my best to take as many defining pictures of the area as I could.

We took a break at a high point along the drive and had some company join us while we rested. I thought these creatures were prairie dogs, but nope!  They are Richardson Ground Squirrels. A relative of the Prairie Dog, they burrow in the ground, but are much smaller than Prairie Dogs. My farmer son-in-law said when looking at a picture of them — “It is a varmint I don’t want around.”  And lo and behold, Alberta considers them a nuisance species and allows a “varmint” gun to be used to eradicate them on private property. I thought they were kinda cute myself!

This was the end of the line for me in terms of sightseeing in this area. We had a couple of dead run days from here to Winnipeg, when there wasn’t much to see. It was mostly prairie lands and cattle. So I took every opportunity while in Calgary to take as many pictures as I could.