Drumheller Surroundings

Recently, Bob Bear and I made a trip to the Drumheller area to photograph two Alberta ghost towns, Dorothy and Wayne. While in the area, we also visited Horse Thief Canyon and the Rosebud River Valley, two excellent locations to experience and photograph the badlands of the province. We were fortunate to enjoy a beautiful, autumn day and photograph the fall colours at their peak.

Dorothy, AB

Dorothy is a hamlet that sits on a widening of the riverbed about 35 km southeast down the Red Deer River valley from Drumheller. At its peak nearly a century ago less than 100 people lived here and now it’s home to about a dozen residents. We were there because it offers several good photographic opportunities, primarily some deserted, old buildings and abandoned farm machinery.

My first photograph for today features the former Alberta Pacific grain elevator that was built in the 1920’s. It operated for 30 years, and closed in the 1950s. The roof was torn off in a bad wind storm in 2015. Today, it remains abandoned, slowly deteriorating as time and weather take their toll.

I scored a double play with this photograph, an old building, possibly a garage at one time, and the equally time worn, Chrysler Valiant.

Horsethief Canyon

Earlier in the day, we visited Horsethief Canyon, located 16 kilometres northwest of the town of Drumheller. It’s on the east bank of the Red Deer River, along Highway 838. Horsethief Canyon features the distinctive features of the surrounding badlands of central Alberta.

This photograph was taken during the early morning light. The sun is low in the sky, creating dramatic shadows in the lee of the canyon walls. This picture, like all my photographs of the canyon, show only what I could capture in a single frame. The canyon is massive, as evidenced by its eastern flank, fading into the distance. The canyon dates back to the last years of the Cretaceous Period, 70 million years ago, the end of the age of dinosaurs.

This photograph highlights one of the many large mounds rising from the bottom of the canyon, composed of mudstone, sandstone, carbonaceous shales, and coal seams.

Rosebud River Valley

The most scenic area we visited, in my opinion, was the Rosebud River Valley. We traveled the 6 kilometre distance through the valley en route to visit another ghost town, Wayne, Alberta. Interestingly, we crossed eleven single-lane bridges to reach Wayne. In addition to their purpose of crossing the river, the bridges serve as excellent vantage points for photography. Here’s one of the many bridges we crossed, one that served as a photographic site.

Following is a scene I could not resist, a hillside flanking the west side of the river. The colours of the flora are obviously very striking. In addition to the vivid orange/yellow hues of the autumn leaves, I like the shades of green, red, yellow and orange in the ground cover of the hillside.

That wraps it up for this post. I have numerous other photographs that I like from this trip. I will endeavour to share some favourites from among them in a future blog.