Drumheller

Jurassic Park? No. They’re not living but a visit to the town of Drumheller, Alberta makes the very very real. We arrived on our trip driving down a windy road that was so steep I was afraid we were going to wear out the brakes on our rental. On our arrival we found our way to the visitors centre, which just happens to have an 86 ft. Tyrannosaurus Rex to greet you. It was awesome to see and we were able to climb to the mouth look out as it is an observation deck.

After our visit out the monster’s mouth, we travelled just up the road to the Dinosaur Museum. I’ve been to museums, but this was just awesome. We learned about dinosaurs, why there were so many found in the lands around Drumheller, and as I hoped, there were 100s of dinosaur exhibits of all sizes. It was an amazing spot to learn, have lunch, and stroll around at our pace.

Our next stop was a short drive north of Drumheller to Horsethief Canyon. I’ve never been to Arizona but I never imagined that we’d have a smaller, yet just as impressive site here in Canada. With fields and oil rigs to one side a 300 ft drop to the bottom of the canyon. Fantastic. We actually were very tempted to climb down, which we saw some had done, but I guess you could consider us gutless. Either way, very cool.

After those sites, we backtracked a bit to the south of Drumheller to the village of Rosedale where we took a walk across the Star Mine suspension bridge over the Red Deer River. My wife was not too excited about how much it shook, but it was a great start to a fun hike on the old Coal Miners trail. On our way back we took the 10x road past Wayne which was at some points a single lane and it crossed over the Rosebud river 9 times. A nice little drive.

While there was an intense desire to get travelling to the Rockies, we were extremely impressed with all the sights, walks, and experiences in and around Drumheller. If you’re planning a trip out west, or just go there for business, some of these areas are certainly worth the visit.