Dinosaurs

At the beginning of August, Esther and I drove up to Drumheller and the surrounding Badlands region. The area is famous for its dinosaur fossils and unusual geography, which makes it look like a mini Grand Canyon.

The drive up there from Calgary was uneventful; there is no major highway leading to Drumheller, so driving there consists of travelling on farm access roads. These dual carraigeways have a speed limit of 100km/h, so it only took an hour or so to get there.

Our first stop was the Royal Tyrell Museum. Here's a little blurb about the place from the website.

There's been life on Earth for more than 3.5 billion years, so we have a lot to show you: ten signature galleries and feature exhibitions that celebrate the spectacular history and diversity of life on Earth, and the palaeontologists who bring the story to life. Learn about the projects and passions of our scientists. Watch our technicians carefully removing the rock from fossils that may hold new clues to the past. Tour our Discoveries Hall to see some of our prize specimens.

Then, begin your journey through geological time. With every step, you'll experience the evolution of life. From sea dwellers to the Tyrrell's BIG attraction, the dinosaurs; to the rise of those furry little mammals and many of Earth's inhabitants in between. It's all here. Dozens of skeletons and hundreds of fossils that tell the story of ancient Alberta.

Opened in 1985, the Royal Tyrrell Museum is known the world over as an outstanding palaeontology museum and research facility. The Government of Alberta under the ministry of Community Development operates the Museum. Our mandate is to collect, conserve, research, display and interpret palaeontological history with special reference to Alberta's fossil heritage.

The museum was beautiful, with lots of real fossils, and mockups of dinosaurs. Seeing a life size Tyrannosaurus rex is pretty scary, you can just imagine how they could grab you up with those massive jaws and crush you into dinner in seconds! Photography was difficult in the musuem; tripods were not allowed so I had to make do with shaky hands and blurry pictures.


After touring the Museum, we grabbed a quick lunch at the cafeteria and then headed out to explore further. It was a HOT day, probably in the 30s, so we were both suffering from the intense sunlight, thus the squinting in the pictures!

Feeding a drink to the dinosaur... he must be hot out there!

Having viewed the Museum, we then embarked on a driving tour of the area, following the 48km long Dinosaur Trail. There are many scenic viewpoints along the way, which allows visitors to truly experience the weirdness of the surrounding lands.



The Bleriot Ferry marks the halfway point of the Dinosaur Trail. It is one of the last cable operated ferries remaining in Alberta.



After completing the drive, we headed south towards another minor attraction in the region; the Hoodoos. These are some weird rock formations that have been carved out of the rock over thousands of years.

Escaping the heat of the sun!

Our final destination was the Rosedale Suspension Bridge. It's a 117m long suspension bridge over a murky river that was used by miners to cross the river to a coal mine over 40 years ago. It's peanuts compared to Capilano Suspension Bridge but it's a piece of Alberta history.



After that, we were hot and tired so we decided to head for home. Turning the air con in the car up to max sure helped!