Day 346 July 17 2015 Kenora Ontario

Day 346  July 17 2015   Kenora Ontario

We Woke up really late and took it easy for the rest of the day.  My Mom and Dad showed up just before noon.  The most strenuous activity of the day was cooking supper.

Day 346 July 16 2015 Kenora Ontario

between Dauphin and Riding Mountain 

Onanole Manitoba

doing the scavenger hunt with Isabel

more red chair shots

the red chair in riding mountain 

enjoying Beaver Tails in Riding Mountain National Park 

Day 346  July 16 2015   Kenora Ontario

I have never been in a town where the train blows it whistle so much as Yorkton.  It seems that when it enters the town it starts blowing and 10 minutes later it must be through the town and it stops.  Needless to say it was not the best sleep of the trip. Once we got going we went to Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba.  We entered the park by Dauphin and drove south to Wasagaming. Once we got to Wasagaming Isabel competed the Junior Explorer book for the park and got the tag for Riding Mountain.  While searching for the clues to complete the junior explorer book Evy and Isabel found a Beaver Tails stand.  Once we had all the clues we had a snack of Beaver Tails.   We were going to stay in the park for the night but decided that it was not worth it as we were only 500 km away from Kenora and it did not seem any nicer.  We left the park after 5:30 and arrived in Kenora around midnight.

Day 345 July 15 2015 Yorkton Alberta

Day 345  July 15 2015   Yorkton  Alberta

We drove from Oyen to Yorkton Alberta, a distance of 630 km.  We left Oyen just after 12 pm and arrived in Yorkton at 10:30 pm.  The two long stops of the day were at a grocery store in Oyen and a Walmart in Saskatoon.  

Day 344 July 14 2015 Oyen Alberta

where we stopped for supper on the way to Oyen

a selfie on the way to the bone bed

walking into the bone bed

the bone bed 

Day 344  July 14 2015   Oyen  Alberta

We took it easy in the morning relaxing in the park and the kids played in the nearby river.  David caught a garter snake and brought it into the camper to show his mom.  When he walked into the camper he announced “snake in the camper” which was followed by Evy not so calmly saying “get it out, get it out, get it out now!”.  There were quite a few rattle snakes in the area so I was hoping that David would be careful and not grab one by mistake.   We went on a guided tour to a bone bed at 1:30 pm.  The tour was interesting as the guide explained how the region was formed and why there are so many fossils there.  Once we reached the bone bed which is a deposit of bones from hundreds of different dinosaurs we had an opportunity to explore the area.  The scenery of the badlands is very pretty and was well worth the effort it took to drive there.  We left the park and headed 2 hours towards Oyen where we camped for the night.

Day 343 July 13 2015 Dinosaur Provincial Park Alberta

Day 343  July 13 2015   Dinosaur Provincial Park  Alberta

We spent a few hours exploring the part of the park that is open to the public.  We hiked the Badlands Trail, The Trail of the Fossil Hunters which led to an old dig site.  We also spent some time just walking around the hodos and coulees and looking at the 2 partially excavated dinosaur skeletons that were in glass enclosures.  In the late afternoon Evy and David went to Brooks to buy David some runners as sandels are not allowed on the tour we are going on tomorrow.  While they were gone Isabel played in the river with a girl that she had met and I supervised.  In the evening Evy and I climbed a hodo and watched the sunset.

Day 342 July 12 2015 Dinosaur Provincial Park Alberta

Day 342  July 12 2015   Dinosaur Provincial Park  Alberta

We went to the Tyrell Dinosaur Museum in Drumheller which featured fossils from the area and is a very nice museum.  Once we left the museum we headed to the visitors center to climb the world’s tallest dinosaur.  It was not worth the effort or the cost and we got better pictures from outside.  Once we were done seeing what we wanted in Drumheller we drove to the Dinosaur Provincial Park arriving at 9 pm.  I then got out the BBQ and cooked supper.  Our normal time for eating supper on this part of the trip is 8 pm or later and our normal time to be leaving the camp site it the morning is between 10:30 and 11 am. 

Day 341 July 11 2015 Calgary Alberta

Day 341  July 11 2015   Calgary  Alberta

We went to the Calgary Stampede and spent most of our time walking around the fairgrounds looking at the exhibits.  We saw two shows one was the Super Dogs and the other was called Pure Adrenalin Rush and portrayed the evolution of motor sports cumulating with people doing flips on BMX, dirt bikes, a quad and a snowmobile.  It was a nice family day at the fair.