Dinosaur Provincial Park - Alberta Canada - Travel & Discover

Badlands stretch along many river valleys throughout the North American Plains, and some of the most spectacular sites are in the 7,330 hectare Dinosaur Provincial Park, 200 kilometers east of the Canadian city of Calgary. The 70 square kilometers of Dinosaur Provincial Park, established in 1955, extend over badlands and prairie along the Red Deer River in southeastern Alberta. The badlands, so-called because the land is not arable, possess an exotic beauty and contain layers of sandstone and mudstone deposited by rivers almost 75 million years ago. The Red Deer River, 740 kilometers long, is glacier-fed by streams from Mount Drummond and Cyclone Mountain in the Rockies of Banff National Park in Alberta. The park is best known for being one of the most important dinosaur fossil beds in the world. Dinosaur Provincial Park was established a World Heritage Site in 1979. The terrain is an outstanding example of ongoing geological processes and fluvial erosion patterns in a semi-arid steppe environment. About six percent of the area is mostly undisturbed riparian habitat, shaped by the meanders of the Red Deer River and characterized by point bars, wide terraces, fans, and cut banks. The badlands, which are the largest in Canada, form a gullied and sculpted landscape of great beauty, constantly eroded by wind and rain, exposing new fossil bone beds. Steep, often precipitous, and densely rilled slopes, almost devoid of vegetation, are striking evidence of the forces of erosion. To European settlers, such areas were clearly worthless because unsuited to farming. Perhaps the term badlands is derived from the French terre mauvaise à traverser, meaning land hard to cross, as the French were among the earliest explorers in the interior of western North America. Today, water from prairie creeks and runoff continues to sculpt the layers of the badlands, the largest in Canada. During the Upper Cretaceous period 75 million years ago, eastern Alberta was a low coastal plain at the edge of the shallow Bear Paw Sea. The climate was subtropical, and the rich wildlife included 35 species of dinosaurs, several of which lived in herds overcome by flooding. Their bones were buried and preserved under layers of sand and mud, deposited in the deltas of sluggish rivers, which became the present south's sandstone and the dinosaur park formation of the Judith River Group. At the end of the last ice age, 13,000 years ago, a sheet of glacial ice 600 meters thick eroded the upper layers of rock, and huge meltwater rivers carved the Red Deer River Valley, with its badlands of coulis, mesas, and buttes, out of the soft rock, exposing this great concentration of fossil-bearing sediments. Hoodoo rocks are often fantastically shaped, naturally carved rock or earth pedestals, pillars, or columns. The word hoodoo probably derives from voodoo, a West African-based religion, in which magical powers are often associated with natural features. Hoodoos tend to be best developed in horizontally bedded rocks or strata, in which relatively soft units are interspaced with more resistant ones, for instance, alternating layers of shale and sandstone. The grassland natural region is characterized by cold winters, warm summers, high winds, and low precipitation. The climate is continental semi-arid, with a mean annual temperature of 3.8 degrees Celsius and frequent high winds. The cold dry winters, averaging between minus 18 degrees Celsius and minus 25 degrees Celsius, are sometimes warned by Chinook winds from the West, and the heat of the summers is tempered by low humidity and rapid evening cooling. The mean annual precipitation is 406 millimeters, most falling in the late spring and early summer. Water erosion, the most complex form, encompasses rain splash, unconcentrated surface erosion by sheet wash or rail wash, channel erosion in rivers or in gullies, flowing only during storms, erosion by water flowing through surface materials, and erosion in the shallow zone of lakes and oceans by tides, currents, and wave action. The site is of great international significance to paleontology. The park contains a wide range of dinosaur remains from the late Cretaceous period. Between 1979 and 1991, a total of 23,347 fossil specimens were collected, including 300 dinosaur skeletons from at least 35 distinct species. In addition, the riverbanks support cottonwood forests, the plains are covered by structurally complex grasslands, and the badland terrain is continually eroded, revealing yet more bones. In 1884, Joseph B. Turrell visited the Red Deer Valley and discovered an obertosaurus. Each summer, paleontologists from around the world converge on the park for an intense period of digging that starts in late June and lasts approximately 10 weeks. The three distinct habitats of Dinosaur Provincial Park each support many plants and animals. Many different animals make their home here. Cottontail rabbits can be seen all over the park. The prairie rattlesnake, bull snake, and red-sided garter snake are present, as well as black widow spiders and scorpions. There are also white-tailed and mule deer, common but nonetheless beautiful species. The park's mission is to protect the bone beds in the valley's fragile environment. Much of it is protected as a natural preserve and is off-limits to unguided visitors because of ongoing excavations. It is easy to become disoriented in the uniform landscape and end up spending the night. A first stop for visitors arriving in the park is the Dinosaur Provincial Park Visitor Center. The field station offers many interesting displays, including complete dinosaur skeletons, murals, and models, and is a departure point for tours into the park. The Dinosaur Provincial Park Visitor Center features exhibits about dinosaurs, fossils, and the geology and natural history of the park. Our project to expand the existing visitor center in Dinosaur Provincial Park includes alterations to the existing facility, an exhibit hall, theater, gift shop, multi-purpose area, and administration offices. In the summer, programs open to the public are offered in the park's fossil prep lab area. The visitor center also houses a theater where videos, computers, and other audiovisual programs provide information on the collection of fossils, continental drift, dinosaur extinction, and other topics. The displays, films, and interpretive programs offered at the center prepare visitors to the park. The Royal Terrell Museum operates an intensive collection and research program in paleontology. New specimens are found each year in nearby Dinosaur Provincial Park, where the museum operates its satellite field station. The 500 square meter field station, opened in May 1987, houses displays of dinosaurs and other fossils found in the park. Royal Terrell Museum of Paleontology, located in the Badlands along the Red Deer River near Drumheller, Alberta, is Canada's only museum dedicated solely to the study and display of prehistoric life. It is named after surveyor and explorer Joseph Burr Terrell, who discovered dinosaur remains near the site of the present museum in 1884. But Terrell's 4,400 square meters of display space celebrate 3.5 billion years of life on Earth. More than 800 fossils are on permanent display, including some of the largest land animals the world has ever known. More than 30 dinosaur specimens can be seen in the main gallery. The Red Deer River flows east then south to join the South Saskatchewan River, just inside the province of Saskatchewan. Its basin extends over 44,500 square kilometers, including mountains, foothills, and semi-arid prairies. Recognized whitewater courses occur on its wilder upper reaches. On its lower portion, 300 kilometers are lined by famous scenic badlands containing dinosaur fossils. The riparian habitat alongside the Red Deer River can be seen by walking along the Cottonwood Flats Trail. This threatened habitat supports trees, shrubs, and a rich diversity of undergrowth and wildlife. There are 20 sub-regions in Alberta. The province's parks and protected areas preserve representative samples of this environmental diversity. Dinosaur Provincial Park helps preserve a part of the grassland natural region. The three distinct habitats of Dinosaur Provincial Park support many plants. Some plants are able to survive in all three habitats, while others are found only in specific micro-habitats. Most of the plants growing in the park's prairie habitat have adapted to succeed in semi-desert conditions and drying winds. In the prairie there are white flowers like prairie onion, star-flowered Solomon's seal, rockcress, or pussytoes, as well as blue, mauve, and purple flowers such as prairie crocus, pasque flower, wild blue flax, or purple prairie clover. The park is also home to yellow flowers like Drummond's milkfetch or gumweed, and pink or red flowers like scarlet mallow and spider plant. In the badlands, a lack of fertile soil, dry conditions, and extreme temperatures make life very hard for plants, though a variety of flowers do grow there. Many showy flowers are seen alongside the trails and roadways in the park. Cacti, greasewood, and many species of sage survive in the hot, dry badlands. Strange land formations rise up on all sides, sculpted by wind and water into hauntingly beautiful shapes, sunbathed in terracotta, bronze, and amber.