How many kids want to grow up to be paleontologists? Maybe after getting your dinosaur magazines through the mail every month, or after watching Jurassic Park... Whatever the reason, we were part of those many kids who fantasized about finding fossils and studying dinosaurs. Of course, that's not what happened, but when we got to Dinosaur Provincial Park, we knew we were about to realize parts of that dream.
The park is a UNESCO World Heritage site situated in a really unique badlands ecosystem, and you can't visit much unless you take a tour (and they were all worth it). Since we arrived late, we went for an indoor activity of casting a fossil and visiting the museum. So yes, this activity was mostly for kids and families, but we still had fun! Our guide was great, and we ended up with beautiful replicas of real fossils. Well, after a little help, especially for poor hubby who could not get the right consistency for his plaster... 😣 We got really good results regardless, as you can see! I cast an ammonite shell, and hubby cast a Hadrosaur toe.
The museum was again quite small, but the fossils inside were gorgeous! Our guide also gave us some tips on how to tell a cast from a real fossil, and we had lots of time to admire the specimens in the gallery. We also learned that some specimens take years to prepare for display, since only one person is ever going to work on one specific specimen. Pictured below are a beautiful composition of a Hadrosaur being chased by some Theropods, a Stegoceras skull, and a classic death pose.
After the activity, we got a campsite in the park and settled down for the night, but only after enjoying the sunset from atop the hoodoos! It seemed like a popular activity, there were quite a lot of people scrambling to get the best view (you can see that in the third picture).
The next day, we had two bus tours planned: the Explorer's Bus Tour and the Centrosaurus Quarry Hike. The first one is an interpretive tour where we go around the restricted area of the park to learn about the geology of the park and see some fossils. The weather was really nice, and we even saw a cute little deer on our trip! We learned that, apart from obvious conservation reasons, most of the park is off-limits because it's a very deceiving landscape. In the fourth picture, you can see a hoodoo that looks really far away... Can you guess how far? We were surprised to learn that it was only 21 meters away! We also saw a beautifully preserved Corythosaurus that had been prepared and left almost exactly where it had been found for visitors to enjoy.
After the first tour and a quick lunch, we were off again on another bus, this time to get to a trailhead and start hiking towards an impressive bone bed. We were once again very impressed with the landscape, and after zigzagging between a few cacti, we made it to the quarry, a mass grave where a great amount of Centrosaurus were dug out. There were so many of them, in fact, that researchers just left the others there for us to enjoy.
There were so many fossils, you wouldn't believe it without the pictures! We were quite literally walking on them everywhere, and we were allowed to touch them and take pictures as long as we put them back where they belonged. We got quite good at identifying the different bones, and I got to hold a horn core (I know the placement is incorrect, but you can't take the unicorn out of the girl 🦄). On the second picture, you can clearly see some bones protruding form the rock. The third one shows the lower jaw of a Centrosaurus. And can you guess the last one? It's a coprolite, which is a fancy word for fossilized poop. 💩
This park is definitely in our top activities of the trip! Walking around and touching dinosaur fossils like this was really like being a kid again, and every penny spent was worth it. But guess what? That was not the end of the Dinosaur Trail! Next stop: Drumheller. Stay tuned, folks! 💜
TL:DR; Dinosaur Provincial Park is a great destination even if you are only remotely interested in dinosaurs. The museum was small but amazing, the casting activity was informative and fun, and the bus tours just blew our mind. We got to touch actual fossils in the field! How much cooler can it get for us kids who wanted to be paleontologists one day? Just awesome. 👌
Comments