Shooting Dinosaurs in Alberta Badlands
April 5th, 2010 by Michael Kwan
You could say that I was a dinosaur geek as a young boy, so this trip was long overdue. I grew up learning about velociraptors and tyrannosaurs, pachycephalosaurs and pterodactyls. My hobbies and interests have since shifted, but I was still very excited to immerse myself in a dinosaur-filled world. The fossil collection is quite impressive indeed.
After shooting animals at the zoo and wrangling some cattle at the Calgary Stampede, it was time to soak in some prehistoric goodness. The museum wasn’t quite as large as I had hoped, but it did offer a good variety of exhibits. Beyond the dinosaurs, they also had some areas on human evolution, sabre-toothed cats, and even some live exhibits with a soft-shelled turtle, aquatic salamanders, and giant cockroaches.
Enjoy the video below and find more pictures in my Flickr photostream.
Tags: dinosaur, museum, tourism
Filed under Travel.
Got some museum tips? Totally excited to take Z there this summer
It’s not quite as huge as I expected, but it still took about 1.5 or 2 hours to get through the whole thing. They also have “add on” activities that go above and beyond the main admission; a 1-hour hiking/interpretive tour of the Badlands, a fossil casting session (good for kids, apparently), and so on. They start in the lobby area, so you’ll want to plan accordingly. Getting back to the entrance when you’re halfway through the museum can be tough. There’s also a small cafeteria there, in case you need some eats.
The museum is laid out in a relatively linear fashion, so just follow the set path to make sure you don’t miss anything.
Know that the museum is about a 5-10 minute drive outside of the town of Drumheller. In town, go to the visitor’s center. There’s a giant T-Rex there that you can climb inside (staircase) and you emerge in its mouth for a good view of the Badlands. Costs three bucks (kids under a certain age are free).
After your done with the museum, take the drive out to the Hoodoos. They’re East of town along Hoodoo Trail. Takes about 15 minutes? Something like that.
I was heavily into dinosaurs when I was a kid too. I still have all my books. Oddly, dinosaurs were one of the things that got me into SciFi…
Nice to get back to boyhood root. If only for a few hours.
The opening musical theme to Jurassic Park gets me everytime. Well done!