Alberta's Oddest Days Out

People move to the Calgary area for whole host of reasons. The Alberta city has experienced huge growth in recent years, with more and more people choosing this part of Canada as their home.

But when Calgary's residents aren't busy working or doing essential chores around the home, what is there to enjoy? Well like many Canadian cities, there are great recreational amenities at every turn, from shopping and sightseeing in the lively downtown area, to more tranquil pursuits, courtesy of the many parks and trails on the outskirts of town. But what about those lesser known attractions that can be found within the province, for those more adventurous Alberta citizens or visitors seeking a, let's say, more unusual day out?

A favourite, for so many different reasons, must be the Alberta Gopher Museum, at Torrington. This bizarre collection of taxidermied delights, houses the stuffed remains of more than 50 gophers, each lovingly dressed and posed in an exciting anthropomorphic manner. Depending on one's viewpoint, this unique fur-filled gallimaufry of oddness is the ultimate in kitsch hilarity, or a hideous example of human kind's blatant disregard to the natural world and predilection for animal cruelty. As a means to illustrate the museum operators' viewpoint, one of the museum's proudly displayed 'highlights', is the book of hate mail received from irate animal lovers. Oh, and you'll know when you've arrived in Torrington, thanks to the towering 14 foot high gopher inhabiting the roadside.

While we're enjoying oversized members of the animal kingdom, who can resist a trip to Falher, the honey capital of Canada, and home, of course, to the 'world's largest bee' (not to be confused with the 'world's largest honey bee' which can be found in Tisdale, Saskatchewan). Fears of anaphylactic shock, resulting from a massive bee sting, shouldn't deter potential visitors - the Falher bee is but an impressive, car-sized sculpture.

But if you want really, really big, how about the world's largest dinosaur? Fossil-evidence aside, the planet's biggest dinosaur is an 86 feet tall tyrannosaurus rex, resident at Drumheller, just 90 minutes drive from Calgary. This area of Alberta is famous among paleontologists and fossil hunters, for its huge deposits of dinosaur remains, and along with the nearby Dinosaur Provincial Park, draws fascinated visitors from around the world.

For more unusual prehistoric discoveries, why not visit the intriguingly named Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, just outside Fort McLeod. This fascinating World Heritage Site, is one of the best preserved and most significant buffalo jumps on the planet, and was used by native Americans for almost 6000 years. A spectacular interpretative centre brings the past to life, through a series of detailed exhibits. But best of all, you get to tell people that you've been to a place called Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.

And who can pass up a visit to Vulcan, the town which proudly, if only coincidentally, shares its name with the home planet of Star Trek's Mr Spock? With a host of Trek-themed activities, Enterprise-enthusiasts can indulge themselves in plenty of sci-fi fun around the town, including a visit to the 'Trek Station' where one can don a crew member costume, and pose for photos on a replica of the bridge of TVs most celebrated spaceship. Just don't choose a red crew shirt, they're always the first to go...

And with such wonders on the doorstep as the World's Largest Easter Egg, in Vegreville, and the unmissable World's Largest Pyrogy in Glendon, Alberta just keeps on providing tempting opportunities to explore. And we didn't even mention the world's first UFO landing pad at St. Paul, or Vilna's enormous mushroom...