MacsTravel Blog

We had not expected this to be our second “badlands park” in a row. Grasslands had been an awesome surprise in terms of the variety and beauty of the terrain and now we were headed to “another” badlands area.

We had decided on Dinosaur Provincial Park over the other famous badlands area in Alberta located near Drumheller because we had heard there was more hiking and access at the former, and we wanted to camp in the badlands if possible. Still, we were not prepared for the breathtaking scene as we neared the ridge and began the long, spectacular descent into the park.

Dinosaur Provincial Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Centre for the unique badlands topography, its status as one of the richest sites in the world for the discovery of dinosaur fossils, and for its rare prairie river ecosystem.

The campsites are definitely family focused but we lucked out with a spot right on the edge of the path that takes you into the park. It had been a very long day in the car as we toured most of the gravel roads in south-west Saskatchewan and I was eager to have our camp set up so I could sit with a cold beer. Once Robin had eliminated 20 or 30 possible locations for the tent (which involved lugging the thousand pound picnic table around the site) we set about putting up the tent. There may have been a few moments of stress as I bludgeoned the ridiculously evasive tent pegs into the concrete hard ground, and I may have thrown an axe (but not with intent to injure).

We set off for a series of hikes the next day, exploring hoodoos, mesas and coulees while keeping our eyes and ears open for rattlesnakes, scorpions and black widow spiders. Shades of walking in Australia!

On some of the trails they have build little “fossil bunkers” which act as interpretive centres to help put the scope and significance of the area as a dinosaur fossil site into context. There are signs throughout the park warning you not to take fossils.

The park gets very hot during the day, so we scheduled our hikes in the morning as much as possible. While the area is accessible for hiking the crowds mean that they do restrict visitors to paths to limit the impact on the ecosystem. While not as open as Grasslands, you can still put in significant time hiking and the views are spectacular!

The morning we were to depart for Calgary we hiked the Cottonwood Trail, a surprisingly lush landscape that is tucked in along the Red Deer River. Some of the trees were well over 200 years old.

After a lovely hike we returned to the campsite to take down the tent before hitting the showers. Take-down went much better than set up: the pre-Cambrian rock yielded the flimsy tent pegs without protest. We rolled the tent up tight and stuffed it into its bag like a sausage in a casing. Tent and camp supplies stowed in the Thule, we climbed into the car looking forward to a shower. As we pulled into the shower facility, Robin began her complicated ritual of using her Apple Watch to locate all of her other technology.

“Have you seen my watch? Have you seen my glasses?”

….

“I think my watch and glasses are in the tent.”

Robin went in for her shower while I unpacked the tent in the parking lot under the gaze of onlookers: curious in the case of the children and somewhat alarmed in the case of their parents.

No axes were thrown.

Next stop, Calgary and Canmore, home(s) of Glenn and Jo Larson!