Drumheller
is a step into another world
Welcome to Drumheller
As you approach Drumheller, the road dips down dramatically into the Red Deer Valley, looking like a big layered cake. This community was founded on coal but now thrives on another subterranean resource – dinosaur bones. A small town set amid Alberta's enigmatic badlands, it acts as the nexus of the so-called Dinosaur Trail. Paleontology is a serious business here (the nearby fantastic Royal Tyrrell Museum is as much research center as tourist site), and downtown the cartoon dino statues on most street corners add some color and character to an otherwise average town (though the dino-related prefixes to business names is sometimes pushing it a little). And then there's the large matter of the 26m-high fiberglass Tyrannosaurus rex that haunts a large tract of downtown. But don't let the paleontological civic pride deter you: there's enough to do around here (dinosaur-related and otherwise) to keep you from dwelling on the kitsch. Add in the museums in nearby East Coulee and the ghosts of Wayne, and you've got a full itinerary.
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Drumheller activities
Calgary to Canadian Badlands Day Trip with Royal Tyrell Museum
Meet your guide and board your air-conditioned coach near Calgary Tower for your day trip to the Canadian Badlands of Alberta. Traveling east, take in views of expansive golden prairies before the landscape shifts to Drumheller’s striated hills and hoodoo rock formations. Forming over millions of years, these fragile sandstone pillars capped with large stones stand anywhere from 16 to 23 feet (5 to 7 meters) tall. Find out from your guide about where the name ‘hoodoo’ comes from, and which indigenous tribes regard them as petrified giants that attack intruders at night.Disembark for views of Horseshoe Canyon, one of Drumheller’s most popular sights, and learn about its geology, history, and native plants and animals at the Interpretative Centre.Next, head to the town of Drumheller, aka Dinosaur Capital of the World, and visit Royal Tyrrell Museum, home to 130,000 fossils of more than 300 different species, many of them dinosaurs. Weave through impressive exhibits and watch scientists assemble a raptor skeleton. You'll receive a behind-the-scenes look at what happens to fossils after they’re unearthed from the nearby UNESCO World Heritage site of Dinosaur Provincial Park.Want to find fossils yourself? Try the museum’s Dinosite tour (own expense. when available), a guided 2-mile (3-km) walk on hilly terrain through the badlands, where you’ll spot dinosaur bones in the ground and learn about ancient Alberta. After time for lunch (own expense) at the museum, leave Drumheller and head to the Atlas Coal Mine for a guided tour of Canada's most complete historic coal mine. Home to the country's last standing wooden coal tipple, this national site gives insight into the dirty, and sometimes deadly, work of coal miners before returning to Calgary.
Drumheller and Badlands Full-Day Tour with a Small Group
Meet in front of the Calgary Tower by the blue City Centre Information sign to begin your tour. From there, you’ll be directed to your driver/guide and vehicle for the day. Each vehicle is air conditioned and has large viewing windows so you can see all of the amazing sites on the way to Drumheller and The Badlands. Stop and enjoy Horseshoe Canyon, walk among the Hoodoos, and enjoy an Underground Tunnel or Tipple Tour* (a structure used to load product for transport) at the Atlas Coal Mine. The tour will stop for lunch (Lunch not included) at the East Coulee School Museum. Your driver /guide will give you more information about their delicious luncheons at a very reasonable price. Next, walk on the old Suspension Bridge that many a miner has crossed! And of course there are the dinosaurs! Enjoy the Royal Tyrrell Museum, Canada’s only museum dedicated exclusively to the science of paleontology.