hiking in the badlands (1955)

 

 

Hiking In The Badlands

 

 

Soon after our hike on Monday, April 11, 1955,

I made the following records of our adventure.   At the time,

Wayne and Bob were 14 years old and I was 11.

 

 

 

It was a time when jack knives were not seen

as a real weapon, when we didn’t know that caves

could be dangerous, and when we did not realize that

dinosaur bones were really precious.   However, we did know

that the badlands were a wonderful playground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob, his dog Mickey, Wayne and me walked south of Drumheller into the badlands. We stopped at Unlucky Creek and tried damning it. We pushed rocks down Sleet Hill.

 

We decided to go west so we followed the creek downstream until we came to a hill. We climbed it, and went on. We saw a hill and called it Mickey hill, which was named after Bob’s dog. We saw a little bump on a hill and called it Bruce’s Bump. That bump was named after Bruce [my two year old brother] We all decided to head for a big hill, but didn’t get there.

 

 

The clouds were dark and so Wayne headed back home. I decided to go on with Bob and his dog. Right after Wayne left, we saw a coyote den.

 

hill-btn.gif 8 kb

[ It was in the central part of this 1996 photo,
high up near the top.]

 

We were scared! We drew our knives and called Mickey near so we would have protection from the fierce coyotes. We went along slowly thinking of what we should do if one of the coyotes attacked us.

 

 

btnhill3.gif 8 kbWe decided to climb a hill beside it so we would know if there was any coyotes in the den or not. If we didn’t know, we would poke our noses around the corner and a coyote would be standing there. It was the time of the season that they would have their babies, so they would be dangerouser than ever.

 

When we got to the hill, we went up the wrong one. While we were climbing, we were going southward, and up a valley. Bob found a sea shell. We found a tunnel, and went over to the hill we were going to climb to see if there was any coyotes or not.

 

We climbed the hill and found a bird’s nest at the top with a lovely bunch of trees. We went southward, looking at more nests, but decided to go to the coyote den. We wanted to get killed then instead of it still coming to us.

 

When we came to the hill, we were thinking of what we should do. We got our knives ready and all set, then came the moment, was there any, or was there some? Then we looked.

 

There was a hole at the front the size of a coyote den, but inside there was a hut. We thought that it might be some kid’s hut that live in Plug Street.

 

 

 

HoleAcs.gif 8 kb     I took this photo 42 years later,

from the hill which faced the hill where the hole was.

There appears to be a path that goes to the top.

 

 

Hole-cu.gif 9 kb     However, at the top was

this thing.  This photo was taken looking down into

a shallow hole.  There are a few flowers growing inside.

So it looks like the hut caved in long ago.  Judging from the appearance of the side of the hill, I would guess that the entrance to the cave was closed off maybe 35 years ago, and this hole was created when the inner part later caved in.

 

 

 

We had a rest. We looked at the city of Drumheller, and the badlands. We could see just about everything in the valley. The valley looked big.

 

hike view 33 kb)

This is about 1/3 of the view.
The black line indicates the
route we hiked over.

 

We finally started for home. It was easy going down the hill. We trotted some of the way, even though it was steep. When we were going over a hill that was grayish, we decided to call it Elephant back.

 

Near the bottom of a hill, we found a whole bunch of dinosaur bones. I put a few in my pocket and went on. We found another bunch of dinosaur bones. I picked up a few more. I found a big one. I carried it some of the way, but put it on Bruce’s Bump.

 

We kept on going north-westward until we came to Volcano Hill. We rested there and then walked home on the road.

 

 

 

 

[At this time, if anyone finds a dinosaur bone,

it would belong to the government.]

 

 

 

 

 

- to 1954 - 1956 diary of a 10 year old boy which was also
written at this time. Link to this file is with 1955 entries.

 

 


 

Originally posted March 20, 1999
back in the days when it took a long time to open
up a photograph. So the thumbnail photos were
created for your convenience (in 1999).