Dinosaur Provincial Park, the world’s largest cache of cretaceous fossils, is located in Alberta’s Badlands. Calgary, the closest international airport, is over two hours by car, to give readers a sense of how much nothing is nearby.
We did Dinosaur Provincial Park in one day.
Here’s how:
Arrive early.
While the park offers ample campground space, visitors like me who want to sleep in a lodge are out of luck. We booked an Air B & B, set our alarm clocks, and made it to the park by 9am. The Badlands are a desert environment. Mid-afternoon gets hot. Booking a morning excursion keeps everybody more comfortable.
Book at least one guided tour.
Dinosaur Provincial Park is massive, but much of it is a natural preserve for paleontologists and park staff. The natural preserve is only open to those on a guided tour. We chose the morning Fossil Safari and were picking our way through a fossil bed by 10am. A park guide helped us determine which of our finds were fossils (everything MTM found) and which were rocks (everything I dragged over.)
Take a gander at DPP’s guided tours HERE.
Take a picnic.
The park offers ample picnic areas, with tables and fire pits. Firewood is even available at a kiosk. With only one snack bar onsite and the town of Brooks a thirty-minute drive away, bringing a picnic equals the best shot at a full belly.
Be gobsmacked.
When we took our guideson Cooper to Dinosaur Provincial Park for his sixth birthday, we didn’t expect to enjoy it as adults. We booked a visit to the paleontology lab thinking it’d give us some blessed air conditioning. Instead, we took a fascinating tour with a real paleontologist and got a chance to touch real fossils. Outside, fossils were EVERYWHERE. By the time we boarded the bus for our sunset photography tour, we knew what to look for.
The lesson? You never know what might happen when you book a trip you think you won’t like. We loved Dinosaur Provincial Park and are already planning a future trip to Alberta to expand our horizons.
Read all about Cooper in my NYT best selling memoir Not Without My Father. Click HERE to get a copy in your preferred format.
What places have surprised you?
Tell us about your experiences in a comment today.
4 Comments
Last time I went to the San Diego Zoo I was thinking “been there, done that.” But it was totally absorbing nonetheless, especially when I realized they grow so much of the animals’ food right there. A lot of the plants you see when you’re wandering around are there to feed the animals. It’s a freakin’ farm all over the park. Really cool.
That is cool. I didn’t realize they did it that way in San Diego. I’ll have to visit the zoo next time.
Who knew?
I learned so much on this trip.
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