In the Canadian Badlands between Cypress Hills and Etzikom, Alberta

Even though we’re big travelers of Canada, there’s still plenty to see. Canada is so big and the average vacation so short ( 2 weeks) that it’s difficult to cover a lot of ground. One way to do it is a fly-drive.

Hoodoos and beehive hills near Drumheller, Alberta

A 4-hour flight west from Toronto will put you in Calgary. A car rental and an hour later and you’re in southeastern Alberta, a landscape so foreign from central Canada that a travel writer from Toronto described it as reaching out and slapping her. 63 municipalities have coined it the Canadian Badlands and aim to make it Canada’s next iconic travel destination (just like the Canadian Rockies, an hour west of Calgary).  From a road trip perspective, we think it’s already there.

The massive prairie landscape is intersected by river valleys with hills that look like giant beehives. The valleys are part of a prehistoric sea that once occupied a good portion of North America. Wind and water have stripped away the sandstone and they’ve revealed something else. Dinosaur fossils. Millions of them. Two places to learn about the biggest finds are Dinosaur Provincial Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, the world’s largest devoted to palaeontology.

If you love driving but hate traffic, this is the place. Armed with an Alberta road map and GPS, we crisscrossed the region by paved and gravel road, sometimes not seeing another car for the better part of two hours.  Gas stations are scarce though. So are corner stores and other things that we take for granted in the city. Topping off the gas tank and having lots of drinking water in the car quickly became necessities.

Streetcar in downtown Toronto, Ontario

On the Trans-Canada Highway west of Brooks, Alberta

Buried loot at the Haunted Stirling Mansion

Halloween is big business in Canada. Just ask Statistics Canada. Every year, it releases Halloween stats that include the latest demographics on trick or treaters, the number of Canadian farms with pumpkin patches, the amount of money Canadians spend on Halloween candy and even a list of places in Canada that may give you the creeps.

Based on recent travels across the country, we came up with our own list of creepy places:

All Hallows Eve at Kings Landing Historical Settlement

Bone-chilling tales including a famous cold case…

“Lizzie Borden took an axe, Gave her mother 40 whacks, When she saw what she had done, She gave her father 41″  Lizzie was later acquitted of the 1892 double-ax murder which over a century later remains unsolved. Expect this kind of bone chilling tale and more as the “dead” gather October 29 and 30 to celebrate the ancient ritual of All Hallows Eve at Kings Landing Historical Settlement near Fredericton, New Brunswick. A mysterious soul and a headless horseman will greet you at the Kings Landing gate and escort you down a lonely gravel road to the King’s Head Inn. There you’ll join others for dnner and a night of murder and mayhem.

Haunted Stirling Mansion, Stirling, Alberta

Canada’s best haunted house:

Last June on a road trip near Lethbridge, Alberta, we stumbled across what we think is THE best haunted house in Canada. It was broad daylight when the owner gave us a tour of the Haunted Stirling Mansion. It didn’t matter. I still  jumped out of my skin when I saw a strange “dude” peeking out from a door slightly ajar. The set design in this place is so well done, my imagination ran wild. Fright Nights run October 28-31.

Haunted Atlas Coal Mine near Drumheller, Alberta

The Atlas Coal Mine:

With all the miner news of late we couldn’t resist including the Haunted Atlas Coal Mine.  It stands next to the ghost town of East Coulee, south of Drumheller, in the Canadian Badlands of Alberta. The mine’s grey-timbered tipple is creepy enough in daylight let alone at night when Hallowe’en guests are invited to explore it armed with only a flashlight. A former bathhouse has big meat hooks attached to ropes on pulleys hanging from the ceiling. Miners once used these to hang their street clothes on, above the coal dust. The Drumheller Paranormal Group thinks this national historic site is haunted. You can judge for yourself. Special Big Boo and Little Boo tours are offered October 30.

Canada’s coolest post-halloween event

Best post-Halloween event:

The Pumpkin Parade in west end Toronto’s Sorauren Park is a feast for the eyes. Every year hundreds of families bring their carved pumpkins to the park at dusk the day after Halloween. The pumpkins are then lit along a path that runs the perimeter of the park.

” The sky is ever sensed above Canada.” – Russian writer Andrei Voznesensky in 1971

Travellers headed west out of Calgary towards the mountains are focused on the growing Rockies, but the first thing that strikes me every time I drive east from the stampede city is the big sky.

Construction delay near Cardston, Alberta, looking west towards the Rocky Mountains

Perhaps it’s because I can’t see over the horizon that my eyes are drawn upwards into the endless expanse of sky. Unlike the Rockies, the land is so flat and sparse in much of the Canadian Badlands that I can literally see forever. The sense of space is irresistible.

This part of Canada tends to have the most clear days and the most sunlit hours in all of the country. But when a storm approaches, it can be seen for miles.

Besides being a long-lasting comic strip first published in 1918, and the second solo album by Rod Stewart released in 1970, Gasoline Alley is a collection of roadside eateries, gas stations, RV dealerships and assorted travellers’ diversions on a patch of highway 2 just south of Red Deer, Alberta. Some people think that Gasoline Alley IS the City of Red Deer, but it’s not. It functions as a service centre about mid way on the 300 kilometres between Calgary and Edmonton.

Drumheller, Alberta's T-Rex has a viewing platform between its teeth!

Chambers’ Dictionary of Etymology defines the term “mascot” as an animal, person or thing that is supposed to bring good luck. According to the dictionary, the word is borrowed from the french word, “mascotte” meaning sorcerer’s charm or good luck piece.

Canada is a land of mascots. I’m not sure why but they’re plentiful here. The largest is Drumheller, Alberta’s T-Rex. Four times the size of a real Tyrannosaurus Rex, it weighs 145,000 pounds, stands 86 feet tall and is 151 feet long. The cost to build T’Rex caused a bit of mascot controversy in Drumheller. But today most who live here would tell you their mascot has brought them good luck in the form of tourism dollars. This dinosaur-themed town is now the heartbeat of the Canadian Badlands, an Alberta region known for its dinosaur fossils, many of which are displayed in Drumheller’s famous Royal Tyrrell Museum.

The Big Apple, Colborne, Ontario

Drive enough of Alberta and you’ll find mascots for just about everything. The world’s largest lamp for a lamp museum. A giant cornstalk in Taber, Alberta famous for its corn. Coronation Alberta’s giant crown was chosen to honour the coronation of King George V. A model of the  Starship Enterprise stands in Vulcan, Alberta.  Manitoba’s mascots include the Melita banana, a giant mosquito, the world’s largest curling rock, and ‘Tommy the Turtle’.  A massive snowman, a giant set of hockey cards, several big buffalo and and a huge pitchfork are some of Saskatchewan’s mascots.

Shediac, New Brunswick, lobster capital of the world

Joe Muffraw, the lumberjack from Mattawa, Ontario

Sparwood, British Columbia has the world’s largest truck and Sudbury, Ontario has the largest nickel. A giant lumberjack is Mattawa, Ontario’s mascot. It was carved by a local artist using a chainsaw. In Canada’s Maritmes, you can’t miss the enormous red lobster as you drive into Shediac, New Brunswick, the lobster capital of the world. On a road trip through Quebec’s Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, we found Verger Lacroix’s basket of fruit and wine representing the apple orchards here. The Colborne area of Ontario is another apple region. The Big Apple at the side of a Highway 401 exit here has sold millions of apple pies to travelers.

Giant fruit basket in Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, Québec

In Pictou, Nova Scotia, the town mascot is Ship Hector, a reproduction of a sailing ship that brought the first Scottish settlers to the birthplace of “New Scotland” in 1773.

Hector Heritage Quay Interpretive Centre and the Ship Hector – photo: courtesy Town of Pictou, NS

Got a mascot in your neck of the woods? If so, we would love to hear from you.

On-board Ship Hector – photo: courtesy Town of Pictou, NS

From the collection at the Banff Park Museum

A recent New York Times article ranked Banff, Alberta as one of the five best places in North America for spring skiing. But what if you don’t ski? Is Banff worth visiting? We think so based on a March trip we did a couple of years ago.

We chose a bed and breakfast a couple of blocks from Banff’s main street. When I booked, I had no idea of the fascinating history behind Tarry-a-while. It was built in 1912 for Mary Schaffer, an early woman explorer of the Canadian Rockies. Mary, a Pennsylvania Quaker, married University of Pennsylvannia botanist, Dr. Charles Schaffer. In the 1880s, the Canadian Pacific Railway had just been completed. Dr. Schaffer was keen to write a book on alpine wildflowers so in 1889, he and Mary traveled by train to the Banff, Lake Louise and Glacier areas of the Canadian Rockies. Obviously impressed by what they saw, they returned to the Rockies every year for the next decade. Both collected and pressed flora specimens. The doctor then documented what he found while Mary painted, illustrated and photographed their finds. When Schaffer died in 1903, the much younger Mary decided to carry on their work and in 1907, Alpine Flora of the Canadian Rockies was published. A second book, Old Indian Trails of the Canadian Rockies, based on Mary’s explorations around Jasper’s Maligne Lake, came out in 1908. Assisting Mary with her work was a mountain guide named William (Billy) Warren. He taught Mary how to ride and enjoy camp life and eventually they married. Billy built Tarry-a-while. Based on our stay in this magnificent heritage home, I have to believe it was a labour of love.

V-joint fir planking is found throughout the interior of Tarry-a-while

I adored Tarry-a-while and was impressed with Mary Schaffer’s artistic ability. Several reproductions of her art hang on the walls of the heritage B&B, however most of her original work is found in the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. This art museum began as a private studio. Historically, I discovered it is connected to the Boston School of Fine Arts. Today, over 4000 works relating to the visual arts of the Canadian Rockies are here, including painting, drawing and some outstanding historic and contemporary photography. Exceptional artists still travel here from around the world to create and perform new works at the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Our quirkiest Banff find was the Banff Park Museum, a national historic site. Run by Parks Canada, the museum web site states: “In February, 1895, a shipment of mounted and labelled specimens arrived in Banff. It included eight mammals, 259 birds, a turtle, 57 specimens of wood, 814 plants and 201 mineral samples… an almost complete representation of the birds and flowering plants found within the limits of the park”. The collection was featured in the Canadian Pavillion at the 1893 Chicago World Fair. When the fair ended, everything was crated up and sent back to Banff. Further specimens were added but what you see today largely characterizes museum practices of the early 20th century. Banff National Park needed something to house the collection so, using Douglas Fir, it constructed an architectural gem of a building. It is the oldest park building maintained by Parks Canada, dating back to 1903.

High above Banff, Alberta, from the top of Sulphur Mountain, in the Canadian Rockies

From quirky, we moved on to cheesy or what we assumed would be cheesy. But we were wrong. The Sulphur Mountain gondola ride was breathtaking and turned out to be an incredible Rockies photo op. It was a crisp, clear March morning when we rode to the top of Sulphur. The summit was a lot colder than Banff and Glenn wasn’t sure his camera would work in the sub-zero temperatures but these pix prove otherwise. At 7,486 feet (2,281 metres), we felt like we were on top of the world.

Later, we rented snowshoes from the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel and hiked trails through a wooded area adjacent to the Banff Springs Golf Course. The area is part of a massive wildlife migratory corridor. We didn’t see another soul on the trails and word had gone out the day before that a cougar had been sighted (rare, but they can happen in these parts). Several times, I caught myself stopping and looking back over my shoulder. No cougars, but we did see elk on the course and lots of wildlife tracks.

Main lobby at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel

Following Afternoon Tea at the Banff Springs Hotel (a treat if you don’t want to break the bank), we headed to Banff’s earliest tourist attraction, the Upper Hot Springs. First Nations sought these waters long before they were discovered by Canadian Pacific Railway workers in 1884. Spas back then were just as popular as they are now and the discovery of hot springs in Canada caused a sensation across the country. Within a year, Banff National Park was created. I am fascinated by Canada’s tourism history and although I have traveled through Banff many times, I had never visited its Upper Hot Springs. They didn’t disappoint. Kudos to Parks Canada! It has restored the Upper Springs’ heritage bathhouse to its former 1932 glory, a time when the Upper Hot Springs rivalled the famous European spas of that era.

The Upper Hot Springs at Banff, Alberta

In the light of day the Atlas Coal Mine doesn't look so creepy, but at night...

Two of the creepiest places to spend Hallowe’en in Canada are Fort George in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, and the Atlas Coal Mine near Drumheller in the Canadian Badlands of Alberta.

Bath house at the Atlas Coal Mine – creepy!

Niagara-on-the-Lake is said to be the most haunted town in Canada and the creepiest place in town is Fort George. Its Hallowe’en ghost tours are so popular tickets go on sale every July so, if you miss this year’s Hallowe’en ghost tours, consider a summer tour. They’re held then too. Fort George was originally built in 1796 as the headquarters for the British Army in Ontario. During the War of 1812, General Isaac Brock and his Aide-de-camp, John Macdonell were buried here following their deaths at the Battle of Queenston Heights. Later, their bodies were removed and buried at Brock’s Monument on Queenston Heights, a famous Niagara landmark that can be seen for miles.

The blacksmith shop at Fort George – photo by Joel Benard

Fort George was the scene of death and suffering. The US Army occupied it for seven months during the War of 1812 and hundreds of young American soldiers died during the occupation due to poor sanitation. Many are still buried on the fort grounds in unmarked graves. Fort George staff talk of unexplained ghostly phenomena on candlelight “ghost” tours. Is Fort George haunted or is it the power of suggestion? That’s for visitors to decide but many who take a Fort George ghost tour report seeing, feeling or hearing strange things. Fort George Hallowe’en tours run in 2009 on October 16-18, October 23-25, October 30-31 and November 1st.

Tunnel tour at the Atlas Coal Mine

From the early 1900s to 1960, Drumheller was the Fort McMurray of coal mining. One hundred and thirty-nine mines once operated in this part of Alberta known as the Canadian Badlands. The Atlas Coal Mine, now a national historic site, is the only one left. Its creepy wooden tipple is the last one still standing in Canada. It’s a favourite Hallowe’en haunt and so is the mine’s former bath house which is just as creepy. Massive meat hooks attached to ropes on pulleys are strung from its ceiling. Miners once used these to hang their street clothes on, high above the coal dust. Every year, the Atlas Coal Mine hosts special Hallowe’en tours where a visitor can explore the tipple and the bathhouse armed with only a flashlight. Tours run October 24th, 30th and 31st. Evening tours are for adults only. Participants beware. We’re told you may encounter the tortured souls of the Headless.

The General Store in Halkirk, Alberta.

In Halkirk, Alberta, Canada, not far from Big Knife Provincial Park, you’ll find the Halkirk Snack Shack. Halkirk is like many towns in this part of Alberta, tiny with a population of just one hundred and seventeen. So when the town’s old grocery store (circa 1907) reopened in 2006 as the Snack Shack, I’m betting it was a welcome sight for local residents. Thirsty and needing a snack on our road trip through this part of the Canadian Badlands, I visited the store while Glenn checked out the Halkirk Hotel. My snack choices turned out to be pretty limited but the back of the old store was a real find. Amid all the second hand stuff I discovered some great old fishing lures, Redcliff and Medalta pottery, and a mint-condition Edison Fireside Gramophone. There was also a kick-butt old wooden counter which I immediately fell in love with and, I asked about its origins. “From the old general store that closed in Botha”, the gal at the cash told me. Bummer, I thought. Another one bites the dust.

The Halkirk Hotel, aka “the Pearl of the Prairie” is right next door to the old store. Built in 1910, it’s been refurbished and is up for sale. We’re hoping it finds a good owner who understands this region’s roadtrip potential. I’d stay there if I was going through here again. The place has real wild west appeal and its saloon serves good homecooked meals and cold beer.

The Halkirk Hotel – "purveyors of clean rooms, fine food and potable spirits".

On the same roadtrip, we later stopped at the Sedalia Co-op, the only store in Sedalia, Alberta. This place sells everything under the sun from fan belts to camping equipment to groceries. You name it, they have it. We sat and chatted with a couple of friendly folk here. Just when a young family of four walked in, Glenn was asking one of the guys what the population of Sedalia was and the guy quipped, “half the population is in this store right now” and he wasn’t kidding.

Interior of the Co-op in Sedalia, Alberta. If they don't have it, you don't need it.

There are very large areas around here called the Special Areas, which I think may be unique to Alberta as far as Canada is concerned. The three Special Areas total about 2.1 million hectares of southeastern Alberta. First established in 1938 due to extreme hardship of the drought years of the 1930s, they’ve more less remained intact to present day. Total population today is only 5,300 so, you can see why I wax poetic about the lack of traffic and light pollution and the abundance of wildlife in this part of the world. In fact, just south of Sedalia, I snapped this pic, one of several deer we saw on our way to Cereal, about 40 minutes south. This sleepy community is home to the Gurlitz kid, a bullriding champ who Glenn and I saw ride at the Oyen Bullarama.

The deer and the antelope literally do play on the prairies of western Canada.

If you have a favourite old store in your part of the world, we’d love to hear about it.

Bloodless bullfighting at the Oyen Bull-A-Rama

A highlight of our Canadian Badlands Alberta trip in 2007 was the annual Oyen Bullarama. We arrived in the late afternoon in Oyen, a town of 1200 near the Saskatchewan border. The parking lot was already a sea of pickup trucks. A bullarama is professional bullriding and “bloodless bullfighting”- the latter is basically a guy in brightly coloured clothing taunting a huge bull. The event is an adrenalin rush like no other. The day had been full sun and the evening light was phenomenal. Glenn was up in the announcer’s booth busy snapping pictures. I took to the stands. Everyone from miles around was there, about 4000 people. Service clubs served hot beef on a bun and the best homemade corndogs I’ve ever tasted and there was a beer tent serving cold beer.

Bull riders and handlers getting ready around the chutes.

The dirt in the ring flew, the excitement was electric and I was transfixed by the guy on the back of a huge black bull. A local told me “it’s not if the bullrider gets hurt but when!” I couldn’t be a mother and watch my son do this but plenty do. The cowboys who ride the bulls are as tough as nails and few wear any type of head gear other than a cowboy hat, so the likelihood of a bull whipping his big head around and nailing a guy badly is very real. They’re good looking these cowboys in their faded blue jeans and chaps. A big silver belt buckle is the sure sign of a champ and the gals who chase the champs are known as buckle bunnies. The night we’re there the Cereal kid, a local bullriding champ, wins. His family breeds “stock” (bulls for bullriding) and the kid is from a long line of bullriders. This is Canada’s true wild west. The Oyen Bullarama takes place every year in late July.

This is the safest place to be when there's an angry bull in the ring.

Medicine Hat, known to locals as “The Hat”, is a city of 60,000 people located in the South Saskatchewan River Valley in southern Alberta. This place has more hours of sunshine than any another Canadian community (2,512 hours per year!). Medicine Hat is evolving as an artistic centre and a destination for visitors interested in art, culture and history. Medicine Hat Clay Industries National Historic District (yes, it’s quite a mouthful) and Medalta Potteries are two of the top tourism attractions in the Canadian Badlands.

What’s new at the Historic Clay District? The Medalta Potteries National Historic Site is continuing its massive restoration project. In 2009, it will be opening a new gallery and the International Centre for Contemporary Ceramics. At the end of 2008, the Working Pottery and the Tony Schlachter Collection were opened.

The Working Pottery gives visitors a chance to see a re-creation of part of the factory as it operated decades ago. Visitors can watch workers use traditional machinery and methods (such as a jigger machine and slip casting). One day a week, a man who worked at Medalta in the 1950′s as a jiggerman comes in and demonstrates.

The Tony Schlachter Collection contains over 2,500 pieces of Medicine Hat pottery. Tony has been collecting since the 1950′s and in eary 2008 he donated his entire collection to the Historic Clay District. It covers every era of the pottery industry in Medicine Hat, dating back to the first pottery company in 1912. Tony still visits Medalta and is happy to take people on a tour of his collection, telling stories of his pieces.

The new gallery is in the old turning room (the room where wet pottery went to dry) which had wood floors and steam piping underneath. When complete, people will be able to walk under the wood floor and see the original steam pipe and brickwork that was excavated a few years ago. The space will also feature Weeks Machines (which were used to create large crocks), a recreation of a tunnel kiln and a children’s activity area

The International Centre for Contemporary Ceramics will be open in the summer of 2009. It will be an artists residency building that will expand the Medalta International Artists in Residence Program, which will be entering its 11th year. This program draws artists from all over the world and injects an incredible energy into “The Hat”.