Piet,Judy and Drumheller

June 03, 2019

Today was a workday for Helga and John, and it was time for us to head north to see my other brother, Piet and his wife Judy, who live in the Drumheller area. 

When we arrived at Piets’s small farm, we immediately jumped into his truck and accompanied him back to Drumheller as he had a doctor’s appointment.  While he visited his doctor, Debbie and I used his truck and cruised the City of Drumheller and took in some of the local tourist sights.

Debbie and I have agreed that during our trip across Canada, we would try to drive to our destinations using secondary highways and roads.  We had accomplished this going to Cowley and Elkwater and now we were going by way of secondary roads to Piets’ home located in the area of Morin, Alberta, about 30 kms, NW of Drumheller.  We rolled through beautiful vistas of newly planted grain crops and huge tracts of farmlands, which made up a colorful patchwork from horizon to horizon. 

After his appointment, we picked up Judy at her work and drove out of town to see some of the local sights of the Drumheller region before heading back to their home.

The City of Drumheller is nestled in the bottom of the valley along the banks of the Red Deer River.  The Drumheller valley is well known for its archeological digs and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology.  The deep valley was formed by millions of years of erosion by winds and rains.  65 million years ago dinosaurs roamed this “Jurassic park”.  During the early 1900’s coal was discovered in the region and it became a coal mining area and later of course, oil and gas was also discovered. Drumheller now has a very diverse economy relying on agriculture, oil and gas and tourism for its prosperity.

We spent the rest of the afternoon, travelling along the valley bottom roads, visiting abandoned coalmines, and visited the Hoodoos park. Hoodoos are sandstone pillar like formations of various sizes and shapes that stick up and out of the banks of the valley.  A denser type of rock material caps the tops of the hoodoos so that as the rains erode the sandstone, the sandstone holds up the cap. These interesting formations can be found throughout the valley.

At one point, Piet and I crossed the river on a suspension bridge to visit a coalmine site.  As we crossed, we watched a 4 foot long bull snake swim across the river as it was being swept downstream.  The snake was yellow with black patches on the back.  Bull snakes are not venomous and prey on rodents.   You would expect to see rattlesnakes but I was told there are no rattlesnakes in this valley.  I am not a lover of these reptiles.

We also visited the area near Rosedale on Highway 10X. You travel across the Rosebud River 11 times on narrow bridges in a short distance.  We then stopped in at the Last Chance Saloon and enjoyed a cold beer.  This eclectic little bar and village, population (40-+), hosts a motorcycle ride for a children’s charity, and thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts spend a fun filled weekend.

We then returned to Piet’s house and as we traveled the 20+ kms, he explained the various farms and the huge crops and associated mechanical implements.  Farming in this region is a major industry.  The farms have tracts of land as far as the eye can see and the tractors and equipment are all huge.  Tomorrow I will explain this further as we visit a neighbor of Piet’s, a Hutterite colony, which is an awesome facility. We enjoyed a barbeque and some more beers and planned our activities for tomorrow.  Piet and Judy had each taken a day off to spend time with us.  The weather changed within hours, from a temperature of 32 degrees to windy and temperature of 12 degrees.  Debbie and I enjoyed crawling into a king size bed, slightly larger than what we have in the trailer.