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Where the Dinosaurs Roamed
Copyright (c) 2007-2012 Travel Alberta, All Rights Reserved
Written by: Travel Alberta
When our family thundered into the Canadian Badlands on a recent dinosaur–hunting holiday, we did it in an armoured beast of our own – a 25–foot recreational vehicle. We'd come to search for the fossil remains of some of the most bloodthirsty beasts of the Late Cretaceous period, and our kids thought it might be wise to have a little extra protection. So, for five days our beloved RV became our home–away–from–home.
Safely cocooned, we had the best of both worlds. Camping underneath 75 million year–old rock faces, we were still able to enjoy our creature comforts – soft beds, a solid roof, and instant access to ice cream and running water. For an urban family trying out camping for the first time, RVing struck the perfect balance between rough and luxe.
Our prehistoric road trip began in Calgary, southern Alberta's biggest city, located just 140 km (88 miles) from the heart of the Badlands. Our vacation planning was simple – fly in to town, see a bit of the Calgary Stampede and then grab our RV from the rental company and head out on the road. We made a mental note to do that other great Alberta road trip - the Scenic Drives Banff route – the next time around.
Rumbling out of Calgary in our rig, we got our first glimpse of the Badlands at Horseshoe Canyon, where the prairie abruptly ends and cracks wide open, exposing steep sandstone canyons. Streaked with the deep red ochre of ironstone, this scenic drive is framed with fast–eroding walls lousy with dinosaur bones, making the Badlands home to some of the richest prehistoric bone beds on the planet.
Perched at the canyon's edge, a fossil shop brimmed with trilobites, ammonites and crocodile teeth. We oohed and ahhed over them, anxious to start exploring and spotting some of our own. We took our scenic drive a few more kilometres into Drumheller, home of the World's Largest Dinosaur, (which we climbed) and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, one of the finest paleontology museums in the world.
As we settled into our campsite on the banks of the Red Deer River, we imagined herds of bloodthirsty dinosaurs thundering through this weather-beaten and mud-caked landscape. But when dinosaurs ruled in southern Alberta, things looked entirely different – a fact we were to discover the next day, when we toured the incredible Tyrrell Museum.
Standing in the museum's Dinosaur Hall the next morning, we saw the Badlands as they had looked 75 million years ago – an oozing, subtropical swampland, on the edge of a shallow sea that geologists have dubbed the Bearpaw. Posed in front of this panorama were 40 or more towering dinosaur skeletons, duking it out in grand Prehistoric style.
Walking through this awesome place, it was easy to see why the Tyrrell is regularly ranked among the finest museums in the world. Chronological galleries take visitors back to the 4-billion-year-old primordial soup whose remains turned up in Yoho National Park's Burgess Shale, and then forward to the present mammal-dominated world we're familiar with today. We marvelled at Black Beauty – a pitch–black T.Rex skull that was pulled out of a mountainside near the Crowsnest Pass a few years back – and wondered how many more discoveries were yet to be made, right outside the doors of the museum.
After hiking along trails that surround the museum grounds, we took another scenic drive to Dinosaur Provincial Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site about two hours south of Drumheller. At the end of this roadtrip is where most of the specimens at the Tyrrell were found, and where visitors can pick up a dinosaur species checklist along with the usual bird and animal lists. Activity in the park is centred around the Field Station, which is closed until September 1st for a major expansion. In the meantime, visitor programming is being conducted from a temporary trailer housing displays. Visitors can sign up for park tours here, but during the busy summer months it's advisable to reserve tickets well in advance, through the park website (see sidebar to the left).
In our three days at the park, we almost did it all – some scenic roadtrips, five self–guided hikes, a lab talk, and a Badlands Bus Tour. Our kids joined other campers in mock game shows like Dinosaur Family Feud and hysterical "paleomusicals" staged by park staff in the outdoor amphitheatre. But our absolute favourite tour of the trip was the Fossil Bed Safari. This is where kids and grown–ups alike are let loose on an ancient bone bed, searching for signs of fossils underfoot. "You're in luck," said safari guide Kamala Hutchison. "It rained last night, so it should be even easier to find them."
And was she ever right. The ground was awash in bones, and within minutes every one of us amateur paleontologists had made a discovery. During our morning of prospecting, we lost count of the number of dinosaur bones, turtle shell fragments and crocodile teeth that were found and duly identified by Hutchison. "Way funner than the bus tour," said 12–year–old Jake Hudson from Edmonton.
Thanks to the constant erosion that gives the Badlands its ever-changing face, fossils are exposed or literally washed down the hillsides with every rainfall. As park supervisor Fred Hammer put it, "We get a totally new park here every 10 to 15 years." Or, as I overheard one visitor say to his wife, "If you don't like the landscape, just wait a minute." For kids (of all ages) who dream of discovering dinosaur bones, this corner of Alberta is pure paradise.
Copyright (c) 2006 Travel Alberta, All Rights Reserved
Travel Alberta is the destination marketing organization for the Province of Alberta. Guided by the Strategic Tourism Marketing Council, Travel Alberta is the steward for the effective delivery of tourism marketing programs. For information about our organization, please visit our Travel Alberta industry web site at http://www.travelalberta.com
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