During May long weekend, we travelled to Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in Alberta with the Outdoors Club. This was to be our second-last trip with the club, but since my new job wasn’t final at the time, the kids didn’t know that. Irene came along for this one as well.

We left on Thursday and travelled down to within a few kilometers of the U.S. border to begin our hike at the Waters’ Ranch at the south end of Police Coulee. Police Coulee is a landmark of some historical significance, as native people used to use it as a thoroughfare, and later rum runners used it to smuggle illegal whiskey across the border. Because of the whiskey trade, the NWMP set up an outpost at the mouth of the coulee where it meets the Milk River Valley, hence the coulee’s name.

We only hiked a few kilometers that night and camped pretty much out in the open in an area where the coulee was not yet terribly deep or steep. The next day (Friday) we hiked up the length of the coulee toward the park. We were lucky enough to have obtained permission from the Waters (the landowners) to hike this section. Some of the scenery is quite spectacular. I’m not sure if the pictures below do it full justice.

We arrived in our campsite at the park in mid-afternoon. This time, we were lucky enough to get the nicer group campsite. I had called immediately on the first business day of the year to make sure that we did. The kids really enjoyed the location, which is right adjacent to the “Hoodoo Trail”. They played games in the hoodoos whenever we had any down time.

On the second full day (Saturday), we arranged a tour of the petroglyphs. There were a few snags in getting that organized, but it worked out OK in the end. The kids were really good on the tour; we even received positive comments from the park staff on their demeanour. That afternoon, we spent at the beach. It was a windy day, but it was warm enough for swimming. The kids would run up to our campsite and then float down the river to the beach. The water was remarkably warm for the time of year, much warmer than I remember it from the last time we did this trip on the May long weekend. To top it off, the weather was fantastic, which was also a contrast to the previous trip. We capped off the day by hiking the Hoodoo Trail in the evening and taking advantage of the lookout point to survey the area.

On Sunday, we took advantage of the river and put the canoes in the water several kilometers upstream from the park. We floated down to the campsite just in time to eat lunch there, then, after lunch continued to float further downstream to the next bridge, where Wendy and Lois, our two parent chaperons, picked us up. Once again the weather was great.

We finished the day by climbing the hoodoos behind the confectionary.  The kids found this a blast, as the pictures will attest.

That left Monday for the long drive home.  It was a good trip overall, though, according to the kids.  They ranked as one of the best trips ever.