"We had a great time in Saskatchewan, but it is time to move on to Alberta." Those were Agie's last words after we finished our fun filled trip to Saskatchewan. We decided to drive straight up to the northern part of Alberta. We visited Wood Buffalo National Park as our first stop. Once we got to the middle of Wood Buffalo National Park, we hit Peace River. We went along Peace River to Lesser Slave Lake. We drove through Wood Buffalo National Park. Did you know that it is the second largest National Park in the world? The park was established in 1922 to protect one of the largest free roaming herds of wood bison. It is so big it is about the same size as Maryland and New Jersey put together! Soon, we decided to drive to Edmonton.

Did you know that Edmonton, established in 1904, is the capital of Alberta? Well, we found that out when we went to Alberta. It was beautiful! Edmonton is known for the largest shopping center in the world, the West Edmonton Mall. Adrienne went shopping there while the boys went to see a football game. Edmonton's population is 863,000. That's a whole lot of people! The Rocky Mountains go from the United States all the way up into Canada, I guess that's why Edmonton's nickname is "Gateway to the Rockies."

It all started when we went to Alberta. We just finished driving here from Banff National Park. We went strait to Drumheller. The tour guy said that it once was full of coal miners and their families. On TV, it said that Red Deer's population was 5,700 people! After that, we went to Reynolds' Pioneer Museum. It was full of antique cars, tractors, steam engines, fire engines and airplanes. At the museum, we saw one of Alberta's better known residents, Kerry Wood. She is an author and naturalist. We mentioned to the tour guide that we were studying migrating birds. He suggested the Gaetz Lakes Sanctuary for Migratory Birds. It was great. We even wrote a report on it for extra credit. Our next stop was Mammoth Cave National Park. Then, we headed off to Calgary.

On our way to Calgary, we visited the Dinosaur National Trail. We visited a dinner theatre before our visit to The Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology. The dinosaur bones were huge! Taylor bought a stuffed dinosaur in the gift shop. It was very windy that night. The next day we hiked more of the Dinosaur Trail. We also heard that in 1884 Joseph Tyrell discovered the Albertosaurus. He was one of the first people to discover the bones of that dinosaur. The largest dinosaur in the world is located in Drumheller, Alberta. It is 85 feet high! It weighed 145,000 pounds! Did you know that today the The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology has more then 35 complete dinosaur skeletons! That is the largest number of complete dinosaur skeletons in the world! You can even take a jeep tour of the dinosaur's skeletons. Then we drove to Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park. We saw the hills that are 600 meters tall. The highest point is 1,446 meters high. We decided to campout overnight there.

After we finished our wonderful stop at Calgary, we went to Lethbridge. It was wonderful. On our way to Lethbridge, we went to Fort Macleod and Head- Smashed- In Buffalo Jump. We took a ferry on the Oldman River. The river was very beautiful and scenic. Our travel agent said to visit the Nikka Yuko Centennial Japanese Gardens. We all agreed it was one of the best things in our vacation. After that, we went to Fort Whoop-Up. It taught all of us about the fur trading and coal mining in Alberta.

After our trip to Lethbridge, we traveled to Medicine Hat. I heard that the population of Medicine Hat is 50,000. What a cool name-Medicine Hat! The tour guide said that there are well- maintained parks and conservation areas. We decided to see some action, so we bought box tickets to a Baby Jay's game. It was phenomenal! Taylor caught a foul ball and the star player hit a homerun in the row after us. Then, we went to a Medicine Hat Tigers game. If it wasn't for the glass covering, Agie would get hit in the face with a hockey puck. The Tigers ended up winning the game. We learned from some friendly tourist that natural gas was found in Medicine Hat in 1885. In 1900, it was being used to heat homes. The tour guide said that for many years Medicine Hat was famous for its pottery produced in local clay deposits.

After that, we jumped on the TransCanadian Highway and traveled back to Saskatchewan. We all agreed that we would never forget our wonderful trip to Alberta. Next winter we will think of Alberta when things get cold here in the states thanks to those Alberta Clippers! They sure make for very cold weather!

See a map of Alberta courtesy of www.maps101.com 

Alberta Word Search
Alberta Seal 
Alberta Fact Card

For more information:

• http://www.gov.ab.ca/home 
• http://www.travelalberta.com/main.htm 
• http://www.canmorealberta.com/gallery 
• http://www.museums.ualberta.ca/lookingwest/welcome.htm 
• http://www.2learn.ca/mapset/virtfieldtrips/virtftmuseums.html 
• http://www.gov.ab.ca/home/about_alberta/index.cfm