Positively Ravishing Red Rock Coulee! Part 1

Spacey

Ravishingly round rocks of red on natural display at Red Rock Coulee create an almost space like landscape, and can be located about 30 kilometres from my acreage!

With all of my posts lately, it is like I have been hired by Travel Alberta to promote South Eastern Alberta! If you have never been to Red Rock Coulee, you must add it to your bucket list!  And if you have been there, you must revisit it throughout the seasons, and at different times of the day!

This area is protected.  Notice the Caution:  "You are in rattlesnake country!"

I photographed so many things, I am going to make three posts. This post will focus on the red rocks. The next post will be about the diverse vegetation, and the third will include a variety of snake-like creatures and other types of rocks.

A Rainbow of Colour at Sunset

Standing on top of the hill looking down into the coulee, one is left wondering how did the huge spherical rocks get here?  How is it possible in the middle of the prairie for these rocks to be sitting out in the open? Did they drop here out of the sky from outer space?

Well, here is an explanation:

The landscape is so diverse.  In some areas, there is sand, dry and cracked.  Other areas appear to be dry and cracked, but when you step on the soil, you somewhat sink, like quick sand.  There are the typical prairie plants like sage and cacti, but then some areas are covered with low growing junipers, which you will see in Post 2 up close.

There are some areas that have a whole colony of red rocks.  In the next two pictures, you can see that the tops have fallen off.  I am baffled by how the top can topple off in one whole piece and at a different angle than how the rock is positioned.

Other times there is a smattering of a single rock here and there, even in the far distance!

Prairie birds flit this way and that celebrating the diverse vegetation and landscape.

Up close, the rock surfaces look like waves of red.

Lichen of orange and greyish white grows in neat patterns on the rocks.

My traveling companions and explorers pose to show you how large the rocks are.

I think you will agree that Red Rock Coulee is positively ravishing red.