Dinosaur Provincial Park is one of our favourite destinations in the Canadian Badlands. It has some of the province’s most impressive badlands scenery, with flat-topped buttes, mushroom-capped hoodoos, sandstone formations, and giant cottonwood trees; the landscape alone is enough to draw you here.
Beyond the landscape, this provincial park has something else special: dinosaur fossils!
The park’s high concentration of dinosaur bone discoveries, the highest in the world, has made it a paleontological hotspot. That, along with its geological uniqueness, has earned it UNESCO World Heritage Site status. It has yielded the most dinosaur fossils and holds the record for the most complete skeletons and the greatest variety of prehistoric creatures found in a single region.
Much of Dinosaur Provincial Park is a preserve, and the public may not access it. The only way to see this part of the park, the fossil-y part, is to book a guided bus or hiking tour.
Note: It is illegal to enter the restricted preserve without an Alberta Parks staff member (on a guided tour) or without a permit. Please obey the signs.
Dinosaur Explorer’s Bus Tour
We were there in early spring and caught the first Explorer’s Bus Tour of the season! On this tour, you visit notable locations in the preserve and learn about Dinosaur Provincial Park’s natural and cultural history.
The First Fossil Finders
Dinosaur Provincial Park is in the traditional territory of the Blackfoot people. Before settlers arrived in the region, the Blackfoot used this area to gather, hunt and have ceremonies. They were the first to discover fossils and considered the dinosaur fossils here “grandfathers of the bison.” As such, they respectfully left those bones undisturbed.
In Blackfoot tradition, the hoodoos and sandstone formations are said to have a spirit, like other earth beings. They’re called matapiiski, which translates to “the people.” These spirits watch over the land. Because they are sacred, the Blackfoot didn’t camp within the hoodoos, but on the valley’s top on the plains. They kept the tipis on the grasslands and explored the areas below by day.
Our guide passed around a fossilized astragalus (bison ankle bone) that likely belonged to an Ice Age bison.
This bone also looks a little like a bison, and Indigenous groups recognized it as the ancestor of modern herds that gave them life.
Learning About the Landscape
Along the tour, you’ll experience the breathtaking beauty of the badlands up close. The guide also explains why this region is a world-class hotbed for dinosaur fossils: the perfect combination of ancient environments and modern erosion.
In the Late Cretaceous period, roughly 75 million years ago, this land wasn’t the desert-like environment you see now. It was lush and subtropical, crisscrossed by massive rivers that emptied into an inland sea. This ecosystem was the perfect habitat for an immense density of dinosaurs. When they died, their remains were rapidly buried in thick layers of river mud, sand and ash. This sealed off their bones, preventing scavengers and oxygen from breaking them down.
Then, millions of years later, glaciers from the last Ice Age melted and moved across the landscape. Their raging meltwaters carved deep, steep coulees. Over the next several million years, water and wind continued to crack open the ancient sedimentary layers, revealing perfectly preserved fossils.
In more recent years, wind erosion has revealed complete dinosaur skeletons high in sandstone walls. So, in a sense, they didn’t have to dig for dinosaur bones; they just appeared before their eyes! In the photo below, you can see the section of sandstone where a dinosaur skeleton was cut from the wall!
Dinosaur Bones Under Your Feet
The most common dinosaur fossils in Dinosaur Provincial Park are hadrosaurs. Those are the duck-billed dinosaurs that gathered in enormous herds. Many of these herbivore herds must have ended up here! At several stops along the tour, we saw hadrosaur bones sticking up right out of the ground!
The tour also featured intact portions of a hadrosaur skeleton protected by a plexiglass dome. The guide explained the different parts of the creature, and it was cool to see it still half in the ground.
The hadrosaur bones shown below appeared for the first time that spring. The guide said they weren’t there in the fall, so wind, rain, and snow over the winter eroded the ground and revealed them. The earth is so soft here that it takes little time to reveal new treasures like these.
Important! It’s illegal to take or disturb fossils. If you see or find a fossil, you must leave it undisturbed. Even dusting sand off a fossil to get a better look is considered disturbance. Instead, please take a photo and report it to your tour guide or the visitor centre.
Fossils Up Close in the Fossil House
While you can’t touch any fossils you see in the ground, you will have an opportunity to handle a few on the tour. We were taken into a fossil house that protects the skeleton of a Corythosaurus, also known as the “Helmet Lizard.” Scientists discovered this skeleton in 1965 in a huge block of sandstone, just a few metres from the building.
We learned about this fossil and what the bones can teach us about how it lived and died. The guide also passed around a few fossils for us to feel. These included a patch of dinosaur scales and a serrated-edged tooth. They also took the time to answer any questions we had about the fossils, skeleton, park and tour.
This tour was only two hours long, but it truly brought the landscape and ancient history of the region to life. The guide was friendly, knowledgeable and passionate about sharing stories and science with the group. I would highly recommend it.
More Guided Tours and Hikes at Dinosaur Provincial Park
Several options let you get up-close and personal with the dinosaur fossils in Dinosaur Provincial Park. They have family-friendly fossil-finder tours, bus tours, and hikes for beginners and advanced trekkers. They also offer stargazing programs and tours that explain the park’s landscape and history.
Plus, specific tours take you right to significant bone beds and high-concentration fossil discoveries, like the Centrosaurus Bonebed hike. Or take it to the next level with a one- or two-day guided excavation! If the weather is bad, check out their indoor programs. These tours are indeed the best way to get the most out of exploring and hiking in Dinosaur Provincial Park
Learn more about programs and tours at Dinosaur Provincial Park.
Plan Your Trip to Dinosaur Provincial Park
Camping
Camping is available year-round. Dinosaur Provincial Park offers walk-in tenting, unserviced and powered campsites for RVs. Pit toilets are available in the campground loops. However, you’ll find hot showers, flush toilets, laundry facilities and public wifi at the nearby Dinosaur Park Service Centre. It’s open seasonally, so check the website for details.
Comfort camping in high-quality canvas wall tents is also available. These tents are very comfortable, with full beds, private decks, bar fridges, electricity, and some with river views!
It’s a popular spot, so reserve your campsites as early as possible! Reserve here.
Visitor Centre
The Visitor Centre at Dinosaur Provincial Park is open daily from late April to the end of August and on weekends from January through April. Stop in for a trail map and ask any questions about exploring and hiking in Dinosaur Provincial Park.
It offers an information desk, a gift shop, washrooms, and guided tour registration. It also houses a small exhibit about the area and the Sternberg-Anderson Theatre, which visitors can view for a small fee.
What to bring
Water bottles or bladders. If you’re hiking or going on a tour in the summer, bring at least 2 litres of water per person. It gets exceptionally hot here in the summer. You can refill your water at the park’s campground and visitor centre, but not in the preserve or on the hiking trails.
Food and supplies. The Cretaceous Café at the Dinosaur Park Service Centre is open from May to September and offers a concession-style menu. The centre also has a small camp store with a few convenience items and supplies. However, if you want something more or different, the closest town for supplies is Brooks (35 minutes away).
Sturdy footwear. Sandals are okay around the campsite, but pack sturdy, closed-toe footwear for your guided tour in Dinosaur Provincial Park. Dust, sand, rocks, holes, and crevices can make the ground unstable. If it has rained, the area can get ridiculously slippery, and the mud is dubbed “dino-snot.” Rattlesnakes, scorpions, and ants are around (though sightings are rare), so protect your feet.
Things to know
Things that bite live here: Dinosaur Provincial Park is home to prairie rattlesnakes, scorpions and black widow spiders. To avoid snakes, stay away from ledges and rock piles. Scorpions and black widows live in small holes and burrows, so don’t stick your hand into any of them!
It gets very hot: The Canadian Badlands can heat up in the summer, with temperatures soaring between 30 and 40 degrees Celsius. Besides the cottonwoods in the campground and along the river, there is very little shade. Wear a hat and sunscreen, drink lots of water, and monitor your heat tolerance.
Dogs on a leash: You can bring your dog into the park, but they must be on a leash. Dogs are not permitted on guided tours.
No cell service: You might find a few bars of service on a hike and along the Public Loop Road, but cell service is generally unavailable in the park. You can access free public wifi at the Visitor Centre and Dinosaur Park Service Centre.
Book interpretive tours early: This park is very popular in the summer, and guided interpretive tours and hikes fill up quickly. If you’re planning to visit the park and explore the Natural Preserve, book your tour as soon as possible. Learn more about the tours, dates, cost, and registration on the Dinosaur Tours page.
Getting here
Dinosaur Provincial Park is 220 KM east of Calgary and 48 KM northeast of Brooks, Alberta. It is not near Drumheller, Alberta.
