Drumheller is a lovely town in the Canadian Badlands renown for its fabulous paleontology museum and its yearly production of the Passion Play. The town is full of dinosaur artifacts and museums, the worlds largest dinosaur, fabulous scenery with hoodoos and rugged colorful hills, coal mines, a pulley ferry, a small church, and a suspension bridge. Those are just some of the activities around town. A nearby hamlet called Rosebud is definitely worth a visit and has a small restaurant, a theater, and a few small shops. A fun place to spend an afternoon.
The most famous part of Drumheller is the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology. It is known as one of the top 10 paleontology museums in the world. The majority of dinosaur fossils are found in China, Argentina, and North America. The Morrison Range (Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana) is where the most dinosaur fossils have been found but Alberta is known as having the most number of dinosaur fossil species. The museum will not disappoint and I count it as one of my favorite museums I have visited throughout the world.
The museum has a lovely scenic area outside with a great viewpoint and a multitude of trails. The museum offers outside tours and digs for an additional cost. Inside, the museum leads you through a variety of dinosaur fossils and is depicted in chronological order.
There’s a greenhouse with a variety of plants showing the living relatives of the coastal sub-tropical vegetation during the dinosaur era. In addition, there is a viewing area of paleontologists busy at work, a gift shop, and an auditorium with hourly showings of dinosaur history films.
The Canadian Badlands are known for their HooDoos which are beautiful rock formations created by erosion.
There’s even a suspension bridge which crosses over the Red Deer River and is fun to walk across. BUT don’t get caught trying to swing it.
We checked out a local campground called Pinters Campground and discovered it had lovely riverfront sites and would have been well worth the visit if you could get one of those great sites such as site 59, 60, or 64. Sites 59 and 60 face the Red Deer River and site 64 sits right along side the river. They offer beautiful views of not only the river but the surrounding Badlands scenery. Next time we will try and stay here.
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