Travelogue: Calgary and the Badlands (Days 41-43)

After three weeks in the mountains of BC and the Yukon, it was a strange novelty to emerge into the prairies again.

Calgary was a much bigger city than I had anticipated; it sprawls into the countryside and covers 820 square kilometres to Toronto's 640. It felt much more suburban than Edmonton, and much more stereotypically western; there was more visible support for Alberta separatism here, despite Edmonton being the capital.

We had three play-based visits in Calgary: the enormous Millennium skate park (the biggest skate park in Canada), the small but striking Osprey Playground in northwest Calgary, and the eleventh Jumpstart playground of our cross-Canada trip, at Shouldice Park.

Each of these was fun, but another highlight for the kids was the waterpark in our hotel, the Sheraton Cavalier out near the airport.

We've been staying at a mix of places on this trip; sometimes motels, sometimes with friends, sometimes at Airbnb's. Whenever we have a place with a pool, the kids are super-psyched for it, even though hotel pools tend to be on the smaller side...but the Sheraton Cavalier bucked that trend with two water slides and two hot tubs. The first night it was fairly crowded, but we took advantage of a late Monday check-out and had the whole thing basically to ourselves before hitting the road towards Drumheller.

We had our first taste of the badlands just outside Drumheller, at the Horseshoe Canyon, where we stopped and explored for a solid hour.

There's something about these canyons that really messes with my sense of distance. Standing at the edge of Horseshoe Canyon, it was impossible to tell how far it was to the bottom; 50 metres? 300? I would have believed either.

We followed the trail to the bottom, and wandered around, discovering rocks, cacti, and all kinds of other secrets the

canyon had to offer.

Then it was off to Drumheller proper.

Drumheller sits in its own canyon, and driving into it is like teleporting; one minute you're in the prairies with nothing in any direction but the occasional oil derrick. Then you go down a hill and you're on the moon.

The prairie's gone, but you know it's just up at the top of the hill. It's like you're in the prairie's basement, and the layered canyon walls with their horizontal 50-shades-of-brown stripes are the wallpaper.

The other thing about Drumheller is that it really leans into its identity as the dinosaur capital of Canada. Statues of dinosaurs are everywhere and built with varying levels of skill. Local businesses go all in too, with such classic names as Dino-Mite Fudge, Heller Good Sandwiches, and perhaps the world's best-named bed and breakfast, "Tyrannosaurus Rest."

At the centre of it all is "The World's Biggest Dinosaur" - a roadside attraction that makes Wawa's goose look tiny, and the mouth of which you can climb up inside. We arrive two minutes after the dinosaur's mouth closed for the evening, but we enjoyed some time at the skate park and on the swings as the world's biggest dinosaur stared directly at the setting sun.

Drumheller's crown jewel is the Royal Tyrell Museum. It's an excellent museum and a must for any family with kids going through their Dino era.

Even our kids, who never had a significant Dino era in the first place, were captivated by the fossils, the displays, the hands-on elements, and the thorough history presented chronologically from the pre-Cambrian to the present, including all major extinctions. The fact that the playground was closed for the season was the only downside of the visit.

On the way out of town we made one more stop to explore some more of the landscape, this time at some hoo doos just outside of Drumheller.

Then we drove back up and out of the valley and back into the prairies. A minute later the whole otherworldly terrain has disappeared from the rearview mirror, leaving us to wonder if it was all a dream.

Next stop: Saskatchewan.

But before we get there...if you believe in the power of play (and if you're here you probably do) please consider donating to our cross-Canada road trip by clicking here. It would mean a lot!