Hoodoo's

Hi steemians!

Well my trip to British-Columbia Rockies kind of went up in smoke when all the uncontrolled wild fires began. We chose to delay our trip because we didn't want to put ourselves at risk and get trapped between fires and we have been getting smoke advisories and poor air quality alerts for our planned destination for the last few weeks. We still plan on going but it may be later in the fall or possibly next year because fires are still burning uncontrollably, with the lack of rainfall and extreme high temperatures it is not expected to get better anytime soon. Our alternate mountain destinations have also been under wildfire threat , destroying a ski resort along with highway closures in the mountain pass trapping many tourists that still dare to travel to these areas and filling it's corridors with smoke.

Western Canadians are no strangers to wildfires due to our dry conditions (we actually call august wildfire season) but these last few years have been terrible with the season starting in July. Last year , one of our Albertan cities , Fort McMurray lost 10% to 15% of the city to devastating wildfires and the entire city had to be evacuated. Thanks to the effort of many firefighters and other emergency personnel, the rest of the city was saved. In 2011, the town of Slave lake also faced devastation and 40% of the town was ravaged by fire. One must wonder, is it a result of climate change? natural or man-made is the bigger question I suppose.

All I am qualified to say is that I hope these dry conditions will come to an end soon and perhaps rain can move in for a few days and reduce the fire hazard that plagues Saskatchewan,Alberta and British-Columbia. THANK YOU to all firefighters, military , other emergency personnel , red cross (and all the folks giving donations) and volunteers working really hard to fight the fires, assist with evacuation orders and makeshift shelter to the many displaced residents (currently over 10 000 people) and all other related efforts.

On a different note, we didn't let this ruin our summer camping and chose to go to one of our other treasured destination that we visit every summer. A small mining town that once was thriving when coal was at the top of the commodity list but now is better known for their abundance in dinosaur fossil deposits and canyons carved by ancient rivers.

Just outside the town of Drumheller in Hoodoo provincial park, unique formations stand tall, we call them hoodoo's (clearly, hehe). They are a formation of volcanic ash that are eroding away both from natural conditions and the several visitors it sees every year that do not respect the protected areas and climb them.

The ancient Aboriginal tribes had this legend that these were ill-intentioned giants turned to stone, where these unique formations get their name.

As the hills of sediment and volcanic ash erode away, they are continually changing, old ones disappear and new ones are formed also unearthing various fossils making the town of Drumheller and it's surrounding canyons a paleontologist and a fossil enthusiast paradise. Stay tuned for my future post (within the next couple of days) that will cover the Royal Tyrell museum and it's rich fossil collection.

Later gators!