Day Sixteen Dinosaur Provincial Park

We left Fort Macleod early and headed out further East in Canada with our destination being Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta. Dinosaur Provincial Park is a world heritage site as designated by UNESCO. After taking a couple wrong turns on the way there we found it in the early afternoon. Total driving time from Fort Macleod to the park is about four and half hours for those taking it easy like us.

Neither of us knew what to expect from the park but Tyler knew the local landscape would be different from what we had been seeing the previous week or so. Situated in the Alberta badlands, Dinosaur Provincial Park is a great destination for anyone with a fascination for science and especially dinosaurs. If traveling with a family make this a sure-stop. After all, what kid doesn’t like dinosaurs!

It wasn’t long after arriving that we realized that we came at the right time of year. Once in the park itself we were about the only people there – we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves! This made walking the trails and seeing the outdoor exhibits very easy as they were crowd free. (Early October) The weather was cool but not cold and the rain held off till a few minutes before we left.

There are a few outdoor exhibits with half-excavated dinosaur remains with voice tutorials describing them to the visitors. The park features a few walking trails, the park visitor centre, a large campsite with 100 or so individual sites, and the Royal Tyrrell Museum Field Station. This gives visitors ample opportunity to explore and learn more about the rich dinosaur remains to be found in this location.

Just know and be prepared to potentially encounter black widow spiders, rattlesnakes and scorpions on the walking trails. We didn’t see any, but then we didn’t look overly hard. The field station has many more exhibits and examples of fossils of all types found in the local area. It also gives a great background to the history of the park. The entrance fee is only a few dollars so it’s a great destination for those traveling on a budget.

Tyler says of day sixteen – I really enjoyed our stay at Dinosaur Provincial Park. The exhibits are well put together and the time of year we visited made enjoying them all the much easier. If you have children this is a great vacation destination as you can easily spend a few days camping in the park while visiting the walking trails and exhibits with your children. There is not much else in the immediate area so be prepared for that.

Catherine says of day sixteen – Dinosaur Provincial Park is great place for a family to visit as it has everything a dinosaur nut could want including many fossils and displays, and not to mention the historical records listed around the park. They offer listening posts with archeologists giving backgrounders on the exhibits before you. Make sure to keep an eye on your children so they are not going out of bounds and are safe from the venomous insects and animals found in the park.