Hoodoo? We do
Tipis at Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park |
Our hotel room for the night. |
One of the symbols of the Canadian Badlands in Alberta is the hoodoo - a rock formation which has eroded to look like a giant mushroom. So when we visited a site today near Drumheller it was curious to hear an elderly woman talking about how they used to be allowed to picnic on the rocks years ago. Now they are fenced off but you can get pretty close for photographs.
A tea room in the countryside is manna from heaven for me so when we saw a sign for one in East Coulee School Museum we gave it a try. No scones and cream here but hoodoo dogs (see pic) and a very nice pot of tea (boiling water poured onto tea. well done). The museum recreates Victorian school values and when today's pupils come for a visit, as we witnessed, they get a bit of a shock. Miss Morrison is waiting for them. The ferocious teacher who gives the kids a dose of old-style discipline. Take off your hats, show some respect and if you are chewing gum take it out of your mouth and put it on your nose.
The pupils looked as if they didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Later, we heard them singing God Save the King. A school principal had visited yesterday and said if he employed Miss Morrison nowadays he would have to let her go as parents would complain. Dunces cap souvenirs were available with I survived Miss Morrison written on them. East Coulee is another town whose population plummeted with the closure of the local mine.
Resident of East Coulee |
Jesus is the only paid up member of a cast performing a Passion Play every July near Drumheller. The rest are volunteers. The site is a natural amphitheatre in the hills and it seats 3000. We visited the crosses on the hill where the crucifixion will take play every night.
Horseshoe Canyon is another classic view and when the helicopter stopped his tours we sat in silence in the sun looking down into the canyon and spotting a cedar waxwing. But the view of our home for the night, the tipis in the valley and the sun setting over the Badlands is one that will stay with me a long time.
Here's my article on sleeping in a tipi in The Australian newspaper.
Here's my article on sleeping in a tipi in The Australian newspaper.
Sunset at Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park |
More Ghost town in Badlands.
More info: http://canadabadlands.com/
What magnificent scenery. Think I'd have preferred the scone to the hoodoo dog though.
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