Dinosaurs in Drumheller

This is going back a few weekends but I figure I ought to update as I've actually been doing some fun stuff lately thanks to meeting fellow Aussie Dylan and his cheap as car rentals...

A few weekends ago we were meant to go camping but due to shitty weather we decided to stay in town... however, we still had a car. We decided to go to a place just out of Calgary called Drumheller. Dylan calls a buddy of his to see how to get to this place... and... after driving 100km MORE than we needed to on the highway (because Dylan kept telling me we hadn't passed the place his friend told him to turn at yet even though on the map I could see we were a zillion miles away from where we were supposed to be...) we head back the way we came...

Finally on the right track and we stop in this town so I can use the bathroom... and we discover one of our back tires is flat... so, we try to find gas in this tiny little hick town on the praries... Reckon any service station has frickin' air? Of course not... We buy magic foam to put that in the tire to get us through but then Dylan decides to change the tire.

I go back and get a refund for the magic foam... Dylan decides he can't be bothered changing the tire... He re-buys the magic foam (I refused because I just got the money back, haha).... So tire is magic foamed, it has been hours since we set off on our adventure, a small detour of 200km later and we're back on our way... only to discover the tire was flat again, which is when we discovered it had a puncture! Oh great! All good, it's not that bad *yet* so we keep driving until we finally reach Drumheller.

Anyways, to sum up Drumheller, apparently was home to the dinosaur many, many moons ago - hence all the cheap and tacky touristy dinosaur figures that litter the streets. It is also home to the World's Largest Dinosaur which you can also climb up the 106 stairs to the top of and stand in the dinosaurs mouth...

After surviving our wacky tourist attack, we decided we were in need of a beer before setting off on a Dinosaur Trail... a 48km round trip of the surrounding area of Drumheller to see the valley... kind of a cool bar so I've chucked in a photo too.
Anyway, with our punctured tire, we set off on the road again and attempted to drive this somewhat spectacular Dinosaur Trail, only to discover that we had gotten lost and had ended up on the wrong highway hence why we did not see much of the spectacular drive that Canada's Lonely Planet guide book was raving about... so, defeated we start the drive back to Drumheller city centre (and on the way see the actual sign for the Dinosaur Trail which we missed about 30kms back) and decided instead to go in search of this saloon which Dylan was adamant he wanted to go to... seriously, if this man can learn anything from me it definitely must be listen to my bloody directions because you are going the wrong way!

Yes, again we managed to get side-tracked and ended up passing the sign to the saloon (after following directions from a dodgy servo dude (that's cashier at a service station to all you non-abbreviating non-Aussies out there) who told us to go over the 11 bridges of Wayne... so we drive... and drive... and pass some Hoodoos which are kind of cool - and see an old coal mine... before turning back and getting on the road which I told Dylan before was probably the road we needed to have taken... however, I pretend I'm annoyed but in reality if we hadn't gotten side-tracked then we would never have seen the old coal mine or the Hoodoos so the detour was actually interesting!

Hoodoos - Sounds kind of creepy but basically what they are is mushroom shaped rocks which are formed by the layers of soft rock which are protected by sheets of hard rock on top. The softer rock erodes pretty quickly but the hard layer of rock on top protects the stone underneath it from eroding so quickly so the layers without harder rock on top erode, leaving the hard rock as a barrier which means these mushroom shaped Hoodoos are formed. Hopefully you get what I'm saying with that but you can check out the Drumheller website for more info if you so desire!
So cutting this post short, we pump up the tire yet again 'cause we're still too lazy to change it and manage to witness a pretty decent sunset at Horseshoe Canyon and head home to call it a night!