The Final 36 Km ...

Greeted by a beautiful morning for our last day on the river ... the FINAL 36 km!

Packing Up and Heading Out!

We saw an array of wildlife ... everything from Beavers to Great Blue Herons, Golden Eagles, Bald Eagles, Pelicans to Deer and Moose!

I LOVE the big ole' Cottonwoods found along the river valley ... if only they could talk!

Someone was kind enough to place a picnic table along the way ... so we had to have a 'snack!'  

Our beast of a canoe!!! 

We found another fantastic sandbar to blow off some steam and have lunch!

The final few kilometres ... leading into Dinosaur Provincial Park!

Such an intriguing and beautiful place!  

Well, that's it in a nutshell ... 145km on the Red Deer River, from Drumheller, AB to Dinosaur Provincial Park!  It's a fantastic river to paddle on with family and the scenery is beautiful!  My family and I have a few reaches left to paddle on this river and I think we have our sights on the 189 km run below Dinosaur Provincial Park down to the confluence with the South Saskatchewan River for 2013!  However, that is going to take some planning and some 'sweet talking' to Grandma and Grandpa ... our shuttle drivers!

In the meantime ... the vacation is definitely over and life is in the hayfield ...