If you have a fur coat and hike in Dinosaur Provincial Park this summer, you may fossilize in record time. Temperatures average 27° C in July and August but remain a welcoming 10 to 20° C in the spring and fall. Avoid becoming one of the 58 species of dinosaur fossils that have been found in the park and bring plenty of water for yourself and your fur-laden friend. Over 500 fossilized species from ferns to large carnivores have been found in the park, earning it a UNESCO World Heritage Site designation in 1979. If you can welcome the heat, side step the prickly pear, and avoid upsetting any rattlesnakes, you will find that a hike into the Badlands of Alberta is punctuated by rewarding and dynamic geologic scenery at every new turn.

We wait for our brother to arrive at the entrance to the park and enjoy views that appear like a rift in time. Miles of gorge fall off the surrounding, arid plateaus that bolster the agricultural landscape of western Canada. We’ve just made the journey 2 hours east of Calgary on Highway 1. There’s a left turn north to Patricia at the now decrepit dinosaur store and signage to guide you the rest of the way. This may be a long day trip from wherever you are, but the journey through the luscious, irrigated farmland and native grassland makes for a beautiful drive on a sunny summer day. Open the window and feel the hot wind unfurl your face. Take in the fresh smells of cattle chowing, antelopes dancing and hawks hunting. If you’re hungry, you can stop at the Patricia Hotel and cook yourself a meaty meal on their indoor grill.

He pulls up in a mini van, accompanied by his two boyhood friends. They are on a cross-country journey and making this quick side-step off the beaten track to join us in this unique and remote corner of the world. They are going to make today a Dinosaur Day. They plan to travel another 2 hours northwest from the park to visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum after our hike.

We began our exploration of the park at the visitor centre. Heading southwest, we get up close and personal with the exposed bedrock and hoodoos along the way. Sweet, cool shade can be found among hidden tunnels if you are brave enough to venture through. Watch for prairie rose and sego lily in the summer. In autumn, patches of wild sunflowers. If you arrive in the soft light of the morning or evening sun, you will find the landscape performs perfectly for family photos. Once the sandstone ridges surrounding the visitor centre are satisfactorily sniffed, we descend into the valley to extend our hike.

The heat stuffs the gorge bottom with force, and you may hike for as little or as long as you dare. You are now in a landscape untouched. It’s remarkably easy to picture the park for it’s namesake, which invites herds of duck-billed dinosaurs or Gorgosaurus from the Cretaceous period into the imagination.

When you’re ready to return to the present, you can do so with a large helping of your favourite ice cream from the camp store. If you want to make an unplanned stay, the provincial campground in the park has supplies, concession food and Otentiks. The ancient, winding, Red Deer River provides the perfect place for an Adventure Shepherd to cool down after a hot day. In mid to late August, you can forge the Red Deer River in bare paws. Enjoy your ice cream. Enjoy the slow rush of the river on your ankles. Most importantly, enjoy the time that you’ve chosen to spend with your family in this peaceful place that protects the past, present and future.

I’m not sure that bears have ever been down to Fish Creek Provincial Park. Stranger things have happened. Is there a little Black Bear, way out there? I certainly would be here if I ate fish for breakfast, especially because the western slopes and entire City of Calgary are covered in a blanket of fresh snow.

The storm yesterday was turbid, the worst all year. The remnants on city streets this early morning include windrows of plowed ice chunks, and yellow tape waving us around the scattered vehicles imprisoned on Sarcee. We wind our way through the apocalyptic scene of cars abandoned in both lanes.

We scrape through the icy streets down to the park gates that are…closed until 8 am. It’s 7:30 and we’re here to make fresh tracks. I can’t wait to walk! I whine and pace in the back seat of the car until we find a right-of-way that allows us access into the park.

Oh my it is still below freezing. The landscape looks deceptively barren in all directions. We bound through fresh snow that is in all places deeper than my knees. It is a sunny morning that is in sharp contrast to yesterday’s opaque evening skies. We head straight towards the creek to avoid an unassuming wind and cold that dare us to cut our walk short. We find shelter beneath the banks. The water is the dark colour of liquid hematite being melted by the sun. We’re surrounded by birdsong and the beat of crunching snow under our paws on a whispering, white background.

We are most certainly alone and begin to wonder about the company of predators. This is a wildlife sanctuary in the middle of Calgary. Around the corner we see a small herd of deer rushing from the trees through the clearing on the other side. We go to join them, or at least I try, but I’m on leash. We see a small round figure in the clearing. Our active imaginations intuit a bear at first. It turns out to be a bush.

We could walk on, but we’ve already spent hours on this frontier and we’re ready for a hot coffee.

The Highline is an easy network of trails through a sheltered, mixed-wood Wildland Park near Canmore, Alberta. It is the perfect place to act like a local on a rainy day. My raincoat was not Gortex, but I was perfectly happy sporting this life-hack that kept me warm and dry on today’s wet adventure.

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If you drive west on Highway 1 from Calgary, the Three Sisters Parkway
exit into Canmore will leisurely wind you between million dollar chalet homes and the protected wildlife corridor full of Highline trails. We were headed down the parkway to the Ha Ling Peak Trailhead, our original, intended destination. But, a full mountain closure posted at the Canmore Nordic Centre stopped us in our tracks. There is a lesson for those with limited time to spend in the Rockies: check the trail reports before you head out.

We had sniffed out a breathtaking meadow at the base of Mount Lawrence Grassi, just a few clicks before we had reached the Nordic Centre and its banner of bad news. Turning back, we found that the meadow is the entrance to the Canmore off-leash area and Quarry Lake Park. From the large parking area here, you can choose your own adventure onto the Highline Trail connectors. The east and west connectors are accessible from the parking area in which we now found ourselves. Additional access into the Highline trail network begins elsewhere: at the Three Sisters entrance and the Riders of Rohan entrance. Riders of Rohan entrance? (Will add that to the adventure book.)

Implementing plan b, we walked from the parking area toward the gentle slope of Mount Lawrence Grassi. If you’re heading toward the power lines, you’ll know you’re going in the right direction to reach the Highline Trail’s east and west connectors. We took a left down the Powerline trail, away from the power plant, and walked for about 1 km before we found the sign for the Highline Trail east connector.

Heading upward at the marker, it was only a few hundred metres before we ran into a small family of deer who welcomed us to the entrance of a Wildland Park. This designation means dogs are not permitted to terrorize the gentle woodland families protected here. After losing a short-lived game of tag with our ruminant welcome committee, we leashed up before entering the park.

There was still snow and ice pack on a good portion of the trail, even at such a low altitude in mid April. You won’t gain more than 300 m in elevation on the Highline. The trails through this peaceful and enchanting forest are well kept with interesting boardwalk features. The moist soil and cedar and pine needle carpeting are soft on my paws. There are rocky sections as well, bordered by large moss-covered boulders (no doubt the shells of old trolls from centuries past).

About 3.6 km from our sign there is a junction for the Three Sisters Creek. The creek is another 2.6 km into the park. We only got about 100 m up toward the creek before deciding to save it for another day. There was rain on the ice on the trail to the creek and we had left our skates in the car.

It was at this junction that we instead followed the loop back toward Quarry Lake Park, about 1.7 km to the parking area. The trail is transected by several gullies that were still filled with snow and ice. In another week or so, I’ll bet these drainage channels will be rushing with melt water. While crossing each gully you will get a different view of the city of Canmore. Since we skipped the Three Sisters Creek, our journey was about 5.3 km total around the loop. Well kept signage will allow you to choose your own adventure in this network of trails and increase or decrease the length of your hike as your time allows.

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Our path allowed us to finish in about 2.5 hours at a leisurely pace, leaving us time to travel back to town centre. A sophisticated cappuccino from the Bicycle Cafe on Main Street warmed our wet noses. We saved an uncommon bottle of South African Syrah from the Canmore Wine Merchants for further investigation.