June 30th, 2008

Welcome to the Badlands

I was recently in Drumheller Alberta for some work and was able to take some time and explore the surroundings. This was my first time being in the Canadian badlands and I was taken back by the beauty of the landscape and how different it is from other places I’ve visited.

Horseshoe Canyon

Horseshoe Canyon was an excellent stop, and I think we saw it at a great time of the year. The grass was still fresh and green and hadn’t browned from the heat of the summer.

Horseshoe Valley, 2008

Hoodoos

Can’t got to the Badlands and not check out the Hoodoos. To be honest before this trip I really didn’t know what a hoodoo was or how they got their name. Essentially it’s two layers of rock, the lower being a softer sedimentary rock and the top cap being a harder rock. Over time the softer rock is eroded creating an interesting totem shape. Here is an interesting link on the origins of the word hoodoo.