Dinosuar Provincial Park – Alberta

Welcome to Dinosaur Provincial Park, the home of Canada’s largest and most spectacular badlands! More species of dinosaurs have been found at this park than any other location of this size.

Heading to the park

Watch for snakes

Entrance to the park before heading downhill into the valley

Entrance

Great views at the entrance

Heading down the hill

Campground check-in

Dinosaur Provincial Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, extends for some 27km along the Red Deer River Valley and consists of mesas, hoodoos, and coulees. There’s a lovely campground, lots of hiking trails, a nice visitor’s center, tours, a cafe, gift shop, theater, and laundry/showers.

Visitor Center

Visitor Center

Visitor Center

Tour shuttle

The campground sits in the trees along the Red Deer River

Campground: Dinosaur Provincial Park
Location: About a 30 minute drive north east from Brooks, Alberta
Site: S-35
Cost: $39 (CAD)
Services: electric (30 AMP) (dump on-site)
Comments: A great campground along the Red Deer River sitting in the valley with terrific views of the surrounding Badlands with lots of hiking trails starting from the campground. A beautiful, beautiful location with both geology and paleontology significance.

Our site S-35 – back-in with eelctric

Our site S-35

View from our site

Badlands in the background

Breakfast!

Breakfast is coming

Our picnic area

Our site, S-35, as seen from one of the hiking trails

We met our campsite neighbors who were born and raised in The Netherlands but have been living in Ontario for some 50 years or so. We chatted with them a number of times for quite awhile. It was fun to hear Dutch again and try to remember it. It has been some 20 years since we lived in The Netherlands. It was great visiting with them. We miss Holland!

Some sites are river waterfront and all have great views.  There are firewood dispensing machines around too!

Firewood for sale

Site along the river

Typical site

Birds abound

There are a number of trails of which some leave directly from the campground and others are further away. We hiked most of them and it was all spectacular. The area became quite popular during the Great Canadian Dinosaur Rush of 1910-1917 when many of the dinosaur fossils were excavated.  It was a bit cloudy, overcast, and rainy but it was still wonderful.

Hiking the Badlands

Hiking through the maze of rocks

Cool rocks

Fabulous scenery even with the poor weather

Overlooking the Badlands

Surreal scenery

Red rock

Taking it all in

Hoo Doo

Great rock formations everywhere

When we departed we hooked up our tow vehicle up at the entrance at the terrific viewpoint. What a beautiful park and we are glad we finally made it here. We have been trying for a number of years to visit this park. There aren’t many sites that can accommodate big rigs and the sites are typically full in the summer so it has been a struggle to try and get a site over the years but now with a small rig we did it. YAY!!

We will be back!!