Long Weekend Road Trip

Driving to Drumheller

Some might find the trip out to Drumheller a bit boring. It‘s not close enough to make it a snap decision to go, but not far enough to have to spend a night to get there. I see the trip as an opportunity to reconnect with the prairies. I spend almost all my days in the inner city, rarely venturing to the suburbs anymore, let alone out into the countryside. Many of our day trips are spent in the mountains. ”Too obvious” I thought before choosing the Drumheller area as our Family Day Sunday destination. The first spot that stopped me in my tracks were these 5 barns in a row. We must have driven past them a hundred times. It was the shadows of the roof peaks that caught my eye. I initially was only going to shoot them from the road, but was drawn the 1/2 km to them by how compelling they were to me.

A popular attraction on the ride out is the old grain elevator owned by Andrew Farms near Nacmine. It’'s some thing we have stopped for before, however today, in the snow and light it seemed magical to me.

The worlds largest dinosaur

We had never gone up the inside of the worlds largest dinosaur. Located at the Drumheller visitor center, it proved a welcome break on our already leisurely journey.

It takes 11 bridges to get to Wayne

In 6kms, you cross the creek 11 times. This day was melty. Wonderfully melty. In front of each bridge was a puddle… the results are just lovely, in my own opinion…

The other 2

Dorothy

The hamlet of Dorothy is at the end of the valley, about 4o minutes east of Drumheller. It’s worth the drive! It has 2 lovingly restored churches that are open for anyone to visit. It has a it’s own grain elevator too! This place is high on my list for some night shooting.

The gorgeous ride home

It’s a bit of a long ride home from that far east end of the valley, however I was purposefully lingering along, so I had a chance at seeing the sunset from on of the incredible vistas out on the rolling prairie. I was right to lollygag. Just as we were heading up to a high spot on the highway, the sun peaked out from the clouds and illuminated this small family of horses. Needless to say, we spent some quality time with our new equine friends.

After that wonderful encounter, it was a relaxing drive into the twilight. A turn at the small town of Dalum and we saw the impressive Lutheran Church housed in this tiny town. You never know what is around the corner in rural Alberta.

The last photo below is a photo of the wind. I am fascinated by seeing the wind. Not just the results of a gust moving the trees, but a wide swath of wind, like you’'d see over a still lake, as the wind makes the new ripples race across the water. In this photo the wind is moving the snow across wide areas of the farmland. From a distance it looks like the most beautiful and random river, chasing across the land.