Conquer the Ridge Half-Marathon

Like most forms of art, chalking can be very messy. The pastel colours get on your hands, on your clothes, on your face and in your hair. Medicine Hat native and local artisan Kristine Ens doesn’t mind though. For her, the messiness of “chalking” is what she loves about the medium.

I steadied myself, held my breath and unholstered my camera. Moments later, a dozen horses thundered past. Before I could breathe again, chunks of dirt and mud rained from the sky – debris kicked up by the galloping horses. Most fell around me, but some landed on my shoulders, exploding into dust.

It had been more than two decades ago since I’d picked up a musical instrument – a stint playing a saxophone for a few semesters in junior high. But within 15 minutes “Kool” Ray Martens had me laying down a groovy line on the bass guitar alongside a couple of his bandmates.

“What’s that funny smell?” My son Finn asks as we sit down at the pottery wheel for a clay experience. “Know what that smell is? It’s Medicine Hat,” says Aaron Nelson, Medalta’s associate director.

Winters in Canada are long and most music fans don’t want to wait until the weather thaws to enjoy the energy and special performances that come with a traditional Western Canadian music festival.  

Medicine Hat may be known for its natural gas, but I discovered it also has a wonderful reputation for a fuel of a different kind - caffeine.

It was potentially a dumb idea. After taking a tour around the Medalta Museum we walked into the artist’s studio and there in front of us was a pottery wheel. To most people it’s an awkward looking contraption.

Kneeling over my grey square on the sideway – I drew … a blank. The fresh box of chalk beside my knee was screaming out ideas but I was afraid to start. What if I can’t draw? What if it looks dumb? What if it rains?... No wait, please rain!

One of the cornerstones of Medicine Hat’s pottery industry was Medalta Potteries, whose facilities still stand in Medicine Hat’s Historic Clay District – one of Canada’s National Historic Sites in Alberta.

Jazz music usually evokes images of smoky nightclubs on big city streets rather than sunny skies and prairie hospitality, but great things often things happen in unlikely places.

Medicine Hat, Alberta is known for a lot of things — a big reserve of natural gas, the sunniest skies in Canada, a historic ceramics industry — but did you know it’s also a destination for coffee lovers? #DareToExplore destination tip - fuel your creativity in Medicine Hat via an artisan coffee tour experience.

When singer-songwriter Linda McRae heard of the Tongue on the Post music festival, she immediately thought of the childhood dare. “I love it.”

Artists create masterpieces that can take days to create, and sometimes within days of completing one, the wind or rain could erase it all.