RV Adventures

What was our reward for getting across the country of Canada as fast as we could?  Dinosaurs!

Dinosaur Provincial Park is located in one of Canada’s Badlands. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  From Wikipedia:  “A World Heritage site is a landmark or area which is selected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as having cultural,^[1] historical, scientific or other form of significance, and is legally protected by international treaties. The sites are judged important to the collective interests of humanity.”

So imagine a Badland with a river running through it, Cottonwood trees along the river, and camping sites under the trees.  That’s where we’ve been the last 4 days.

Camping among the Cottonwood trees along a creek.

Dinosaur Provincial Park has one of the largest concentration of dinosaur fossils in the world. And visitors are given access to these fossils!

A raptor! I’m not sure why this little guy was on top of a shelter, but he sure got your attention.

To really see the fossils, you can take guided tours into the “restricted area.” By restricting access to much of the property, paleontologists can continue their work in undisturbed areas. The tours fill up quickly (unbeknownst to us), so Jim did a hiking tour of a quarry (dig site) and I did a fossil exploration tour.

The Badlands, the day of our tours. The weather was comfortable and the sky was blue. It was a perfect day.

Welcome to your tour. Please board the bus now.

Led by a very entertaining Alberta Parks Ranger, our tour made a number of stops. At Stop 1, we were challenged to find dinosaur fossils. They were all over!

I’m holding a dinosaur bone!

One of the kids on the tour found a bigger dinosaur bone. We learned to look for bubbles in the fossil (the bone marrow) and a smooth outer surface.

This is a dinosaur bone in the sandstone. The Ranger was spotting fossils that weren’t there the week before! Fossils are still being uncovered every day.

Stop 2 provided an even bigger fossil collection. It was nice the way the park has protected them from people, but still allow you to get up close.

What’s under that bubble?

Its a vertebrae and rib cage!

Another stop had us inside a building protecting the bones of a Corythosaurus.

Our entertaining ranger Eric explaining what was what in this complete skeleton.

Corythosaurus skeleton mostly intact, including the head!

This morning, Jim and I set out on our EARLY to do the three hikes in the park. What a difference a day can make with the color of the sky! Notice how gray it looks.

We were out the door by 7:00 a.m. That is one way to beat the crowds and the heat.

We have been concerned about all the wildfires in the west. Today, we are seeing the effects. We had a “smoke warning” in the area. Look at the sky, the smoke has moved in to the point you could barely see the sun.

A dig is marked with a locator stake. That helps scientists know where fossils specifically came from.  Here’s a stake at a quarry location from a past dig.

This is the top of a dig locator stake.  I’m not sure what that info all means other than the word Fossil.

We did a short hike along the Red Deer River.  The river runs through the Badlands and allows trees to grow along its shore.

We spotted a mule deer and her fawn

Our hike ended with a 200 year old cottonwood tree.

After doing our hikes early this morning, we left Dinosaur Provincial Park and are now in Lethbridge, Alberta for the night.  We will move on to British Columbia tomorrow and aare keeping an eye on the wildfire situation.  Breathing in the smoke is bad enough (and it’s bad here).  We don’t want to be anywhere near a wildfire!!!!