Within just a few days last autumn I spent the night at a ghost town hotel followed by a chilly overnight stay in a tipi at Blackfoot Crossing. The experiences were unforgettable and surreal all at once. I was on a media trip in the Alberta Badlands, a few hours outside of Calgary, with two [...]

The Rosedeer Hotel opened 1913 in the dusty boomtown of Wayne, Alberta. Back then, the population swelled to over 2,500 but since the mines closed up in the 1950s it has dipped to just over two dozen. Over the last 30 years proprietor Fred Dayman, who bought the place from his mother (his uncle owning [...]

Last week I was on a tour with travel media exploring the Alberta Badlands prior to the Go Media conference in Edmonton, hosted by the Canadian Tourism Commission. We started off with a whirlwind tour of Drumheller and one of our next stops was the Atlas Coal Mine. Since it closed three decades ago, this [...]

I’m a West Coast girl, born and raised. My boots are muddy 10 months of the year, I can tell the difference between a spruce, cedar, or pine cone, and I know that while seaweed is smelly at low-tide, it’s delicious on a specialty hot dog. I’m used to damp, mossy, lush green coastal forests [...]

I’m in Alberta for the next week on an excursion in the Badlands followed by a travel media conference in Edmonton. Yesterday our small group was picked up at the Calgary airport by Pat “The Bandlands Guy” Mulgrew of Wild West Badlands Tours and we began a whirlwind visit of this unique region. In just [...]