Tunnel Mountain Village #1, Banff, Alberta, Canada

After Drumheller we headed west over to Canada's first National Park System in Banff, Alberta. We set up camp in Tunnel Mountain Village #1 and a few hours after we arrived my FAVORITE cousin Gord and his son Austin arrived from Vancouver.


The next day my Auntie Mary Lea, Uncle Rye and cousin Elena drove down from Prince George, British Columbia. We had the best campsite...Complete with a constant campfire, screened picnic tables, and the best company ever.


The first day we hiked down to the city of Banff. It was a fun walk down to the valley. The city was under major construction, and I think that's part of the reason I didn't take any pictures there. I did take one (not very good) picture of Reeve, Kyle and Austin skipping rocks into the Bow River.

We didn't stay there very long because we were determined to catch the bus back to camp...no one was eager to hike the mountain road back up to our campsite.

We really enjoyed the nature programs the campsite put on in their ampitheatre at 9pm each night. I'll post more pics of the HOODOOS and Sulphur Mtn. in the next few days.

Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

We had one whole day in Drumheller, and we had fun. After we toured the Royal Tyrell Dinosaur Museum we spent some time exploring the badlands.

Reeve really had his heart set on going to Drumheller and finding a dinosaur fossil all on his own.

Kyle was happy to help his big bro on their dino expedition. It was a beautiful day and Tom and I were more than happy to take a break and read our books while the boys searched for fossils.

After awhile Kyle gave out and Reeve continued his search in what he said was an ancient river bed. He scoped the scene before he made a decision on where he thought the most likely spot for a dinosaur to be found.

After lunch and the dig we walked around Drumheller. It's a cute little town with dinosaurs on every corner.

Our Trip to Canada

Our vacation started out by taking a 10 hour drive north to Winnipeg, Manitoba. My Great Aunt Louise lives there and I had never met her before. She's an extremely dear woman to me. She remembers to send us birthday cards, anniversary cards, and seasonal cards every year. I've corresponded with her the most I have with anyone else in my life, so I had to meet her!

Her grandson Leif stopped by when he heard we would be in town. We had a great time talking and visiting.
Aunt Louise lives in a condo that is connected to a huge shopping complex that houses a huge YMCA. In the winter she never has to go outside to go shopping. They have EVERYTHING in there...including an Office Depot. We were really surprised to see that Winnipeg is a HUGE city.
After our visit we hit the road again. We drove about 15 hours to Drumheller, Alberta...the Dinosaur Capital of the World. We arrived in the morning and drove through extremely thick fog in the badlands to get there. The whole drive was terribly BORING. Nothing but canola fields and wheat fields. We had to pull over twice to sleep, which is very uncharacteristic for us. Usually one of us is able to sleep while the other one drives...that just wasn't happening in lonely, deserted, SASKATCHAWAN.

This T-Rex greeted us after our long journey. Reeve was very concerned that the whole thing was going to topple over. Our campground was just across the street. I didn't take any pictures of it...it wasn't much for looks. It had rained the night before and everything was very muddy. It's one unique feature was all the bunny rabbits they had hopping about. Not wild bunnies, but domestic rabbits let loose to multiply throughout the campground. Each site must have had 5-10 little bunnies hopping around. They were'nt "friendly" bunnies. Not one would let us pet them, but they were everywhere.

Reeve and Kyle are standing near a T-Rex skeleton...I think they were a bit disappointed to learn the actual size of a T-Rex. It was no where as large as the fake one they had just seen.