Followers of this blog will know that I love wildlife. I’m obsessed with safaris, pointing my camera at birds and animals, and generally being out in nature.
So you might find it a bit odd that this blog post is all about where to see dinosaurs in Alberta. Since dinosaurs are, y’know, dead.
Very dead (sorry to break it to you, my condolences).
But you know what? Dinosaurs may be dead, but they are still animals, and they are still extremely cool. So as far as I’m concerned, they fit the brief.
Not to mention that Alberta, Canada has some of the most stunning landscapes you’ll find anywhere in the world.
And if you’re reading this post, I’m guessing you feel the same. Welcome!
A dinosaur safari in Canada
Thanks to the tireless work of some very patient palaeontologists, we know a lot about the long extinct animals that used to roam this planet.
I even interviewed a few of them (the palaeontologists, not the extinct animals) during the making of documentaries like Ice Age Footprints, When Whales Could Walk, and Lost Beasts Unearthed.
And one thing I learned is that while there are loads of places in the world where dinosaur fossils have been found (including here in the UK), few are better and more accessible for a dinosaur holiday than Canada.
Specifically, the province of Alberta, which ranks among the best places in the world to see dinosaurs.
Alberta isn’t a cheesy theme park packed with plastic triceratops and animatronic T-rex saying ‘raaarrrr’ on repeat.
Instead, you can hold genuine dinosaur bones, walk through ancient fossil beds, and even help palaeontologists with active excavations.
From the dramatic Badlands landscape of Dinosaur Provincial Park to the galleries of the Royal Tyrrell Museum and a hands-on dig experience at Grande Prairie, there are loads of opportunities for dinosaur fans to get their fix.
Keep reading to find out exactly where to go, what to see and do, and how to organise your Canada dinosaur safari.
Read more: Wadi Al Hitan: How To Visit Egypt’s Valley Of The Whales
About my Alberta dinosaur experience
These days more and more crap served up on the internet is just that – crap – so allow me, very briefly, to interrupt your scrolling to reassure you.
This blog post is entirely AI-free, written by me with a laptop and all 10 fingers, based on real visits that I did earlier this year to the top dinosaur parks in Alberta. All the photos were taken by me (except when I’m in them!).
My in-person research is also backed up by my longstanding interest in dinosaurs, and by my previous experience directing palaeontology documentaries for Discovery, PBS, and French and Australian TV.
That background meant I could ask informed questions and understand the answers as I hiked with geologists and toured dinosaur museums.
My trip to discover dinosaurs in Alberta was supported by Travel Alberta, who hosted me in exchange for writing articles in National Geographic Traveller and the Metro newspaper. The itinerary is exactly what we did, so you know it’s the best dinosaur road trip itinerary, designed by the experts.
This blog post was not part of the agreement; I’m just writing it anyway because I think dinosaurs are cool and I want to inspire more people to go and see them.
Why Alberta is one of the best places for a dinosaur vacation
So why are there so many dinosaurs in Alberta?
During the Late Cretaceous period, roughly 76 to 74 million years ago, southern Alberta was a coastal plain crisscrossed by rivers, swamps and forests.
It was home to at least 90 species of dinosaur (that we know of) – including hadrosaurs (the duck-billed dinosaur), Gorgosaurus (a predator similar to T-Rex) and the armour-plated Ankylosaurus.
For dinosaur newbies, the Cretaceous is the period that came after the more famous Jurassic period (as in Park). The Jurassic period was about 202-145 million years ago, and is when you get dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Allosaurus, a sharp-toothed ancestor of T-Rex.
The Cretaceous, where the Alberta dinosaurs come from, came after, from 145 million years ago to 66 million years ago. It ended when the asteroid came and wiped out the dinosaurs.
Of course, dinosaurs lived all over the world, and may be buried everywhere. The reason why Alberta is such a great place to see them is because they are accessible.
In the millions of years after the end of the Cretaceous period, Alberta became an inland sea, leaving marine fossil deposits on top of the dinosaur-bearing ones. You can clearly see this in the gorgeous striped stratigraphy of the Alberta Badlands landscapes.
But then, about 15,000 years ago, glaciers and rivers carved through these soft deposits, revealing the dinosaur fossil beds again.
Alberta’s layered sedimentary geology, extreme erosion, and strict fossil protection laws have created a perfect environment for discovery – so much so that the experts still uncover about half a dozen new skeletons every year.
Read more: Coober Pedy Opal Mining: Australia’s Final Frontier
So here are the top places for a dinosaur fossil safari in Alberta, Canada
1/ The stunning dinosaur landscape: Dinosaur Provincial Park
For dramatic landscapes and a real sense of stepping back in time to when dinosaurs roamed the earth, there’s no better place than the Alberta Badlands and Dinosaur Provincial Park.
Why you should visit Dinosaur Provincial Park
About a 2.5-hour drive east of Calgary, through miles of featureless prairie dotted with cows and pylons, the ground suddenly falls away into canyons that look like the surface of another planet.
Wrinkled, elephant-skin hills and candy-striped valleys stretch as far as the eye can see, studded with weird stone toadstools called hoodoos.
These are the Alberta Badlands, so-called because early settlers realised they were ‘bad’ – for walking across, for growing crops, basically for pretty much anything. Except for finding dinosaur fossils, as it turns out.
Here is where you’ll find Dinosaur Provincial Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the richest fossil beds in the world.
More than 150 complete dinosaur skeletons have been found here, from horned Ceratopsians to armoured Ankylosaurs, and the landscape looks every bit as dramatic as the bones it hides.
You don’t even need to dig – there are parts of the park where you can literally just walk around and stumble upon a hadrosaur leg bone. I know, because that’s exactly what I did.
Things to do at Dinosaur Provincial Park
There’s an excellent visitor centre with a small museum featuring some of the top dinosaurs found in the area – at least, those which haven’t been sent to the Royal Tyrrell (which I’ll get to in a moment).
Around the visitor centre there are 20 km of self-guided trails which allow you to explore the area. Small displays feature a few more dinosaur fossils, and there’s also a dinosaur-themed kids’ play area.
You can drive, walk or bike the 3.5 km Public Scenic Loop Road to enjoy the Badlands landscape in your own time.
But to get to where the real bonebeds lie and you can spot fossils in the wild, you’ll need to join a guided tour, which will take you into the most important – and exciting! – areas of the park.
These areas are so precious that you need to be supervised at all times, because the temptation to put something in your pocket would be just too strong for some people.
Pro tip: don’t do that. (A) because it’s deeply unethical to take anything other than photos and (B) because if you get caught it’s a $50,000 fine and possibly a prison sentence.
To explore these fossil-dense areas, the park runs a range of guided hiking, bus and even landscape photography tour options lasting from 2-4 hours, with varying degrees of hiking difficulty.
All of them are led by experienced geologists or palaeontologists who can take you to the best spots and answer all your questions.
We did a two-hour bus and hiking tour with Jessica, Dinosaur Provincial Park’s visitor experience team leader. She drove us into the restricted area, where we were able to hike through the bizarre landscapes and see dinosaur fossils just strewn about on the ground like broken pottery.
Sometimes there was so much we had to be super careful where we walked. It was a truly incredible experience to get so close to the remains of real dinosaurs that walked through these landscapes 75 million years ago.
Note that while there are family-friendly tours, some are only open to people over the age of 12. This is the real dinosaur experience for grown-ups, not a kids’ theme park.
How to visit Dinosaur Provincial Park
Dinosaur Provincial Park is about 220 km from Calgary. The closest towns are Bassano and Brooks, where you can find limited accommodation and places to eat.
There’s no public transport directly from Calgary to Dinosaur Park. There are buses from Calgary to both Bassano and Brooks, and from there you’ll need to grab a taxi to the park.
However, for flexibility, speed and freedom when getting around between Alberta’s dinosaur locations, I’d recommend renting a car.
Tours into the protected areas of Dinosaur Provincial Park run from May to October and typically cost around CAD $25–35. It won’t surprise you to learn that tours are popular, especially during the summer, and spaces are limited, so make sure you book in advance to avoid disappointment.
Don’t forget to bring water, sunscreen and a hat, and good walking shoes – when it’s wet the ground can be super slippery.
Read more: A Canadian Safari Review: See Canada’s Big Five In Manitoba
Where to stay near Dinosaur Provincial Park
We stayed the first night in Calgary and then drove across in the morning.
LUXURY: The Dorian, Autograph Collection
This was where we stayed. The Dorian is right in the city centre of Calgary, luxurious and elegantly decorated with an Oscar Wilde theme. There’s a good restaurant and a decent gym. It was my favourite of all the places we stayed on our dinosaur road trip.
Booking.com rating: 9.1. Click here to read reviews and book.
CAMPING: Dinosaur Provincial Park Campsite
For the full Badlands dinosaur experience, I recommend staying overnight in the on-site campsite, where they have pitches for your own tent or van, as well as fixed furnished glamping tents.
The campground has a dedicated service centre with bathrooms, a cafeteria and a laundry.
Make sure you wake up early for a chance to experience the Badlands at dawn, when there’s no one else around and the light paints the rocks like slices of Viennetta (if you weren’t alive in the 90s, Google it).
Other hotel options close to Dinosaur Provincial Park include…
MIDRANGE: Canalta Brooks
Chain hotels in this area all seem to follow the same format, and the Canalta is a solid example of the genre. Clean, comfortable rooms, a hot tub, indoor pool and gym make it easy to unwind after fossil-hunting days. It’s about a 30 minute drive from Dinosaur Provincial Park, making it a practical stopover.
Booking.com rating: 8.8. Click here to read reviews and book.
BUDGET: SureStay Plus by Best Western Brooks
The Surestay by Best Western is the sensible choice if you want no-frills comfort without breaking the bank. It’s a safe and standard chain hotel with a simple gym and complimentary parking, and it sits just off the Trans‑Canada Highway so it’s straightforward to roll back to base early. Also around 30 minutes from the park, it’s a decent place to crash after a day exploring the Badlands.
Booking.com rating: 8.6. Click here to read reviews and book.
2/ The best dinosaur museum: Royal Tyrrell Museum, Drumheller
The second stop on your dinosaur road trip through Alberta, Canada, should be Drumheller, a dinosaur-obsessed town that’s home to one of the world’s top dinosaur museums.
Drumheller, the Dinosaur Capital of the World
Drumheller is a small town about 90 minutes northeast of Calgary that has built its entire identity around dinosaurs.
It sits in the heart of the Red Deer River Valley, surrounded by dramatic Badlands scenery, and is home to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, which is one of the most important dinosaur museums in the world.
The town has branded itself the Dinosaur Capital of the World and you certainly can’t miss the theme. There are restaurants with pun dinosaur names, dinosaur sculptures on every corner and even a 26-metre (86 feet) tall fibreglass Tyrannosaur named Tyra – said to be the biggest T-Rex in the world.
Drumheller is a good base for exploring the surrounding area and is set up for tourists, with plenty of accommodation and restaurants.
Read more: Things To Do In Winnipeg: My Ideal 1-Day Winnipeg Itinerary
Inside the Royal Tyrrell Museum
But of course the main reason everyone comes to Drumheller is for the Royal Tyrrell. This world-class museum is known for its scientific research and enormous fossil collections, but it also does a good job of making palaeontology accessible to dinosaur newbies.
There are around 50 dinosaur species on display, most of them found in Alberta and all of them incredibly impressive.
The galleries take you on a journey through evolution, all the way from the very first lifeforms to the Ice Age megafauna, though most of the focus is on dinosaurs.
Highlights include Black Beauty, a T-Rex with unusually dark bones stained by manganese in the soil, the most complete Triceratops skull ever found in Canada, and a huge dinosaur hall with dozens of super-cool mounted skeletons alongside artists’ impressions of what they would have looked like in the flesh.
I also enjoyed the new Breakthroughs exhibit, featuring recent Alberta dinosaur discoveries.
The galleries are spacious and well-designed, with clear and informative explanations. I normally get bored quite quickly in museums, but this one was actually well-laid out and super interesting, without too much information overload.
Other things to do in Drumheller
As well as the museum, Drumheller has a few other attractions worth visiting. Tyra, the giant dinosaur sculpture near the visitor centre, is the biggest in the world.
You can climb up inside for a small fee and get a view over the town from its mouth.
The nearby Hoodoos Trail is a short walk among tall rock pillars, and Horse Thief Canyon, a 15-minute drive from the centre, offers one of the best views in the Badlands.
The layers of striped rock here are especially striking at sunset. You don’t need long in Drumheller itself, but it’s worth spending a night or two to make the most of the area.
How to visit Drumheller and the Royal Tyrrell Museum
Drumheller is easily reached by car from Calgary, with a direct and well-maintained road.
The museum is open year-round, but summer is the busiest time. Tickets cost CAD $21 for adults and can be booked online. Tours are not available.
Allow at least two to three hours to see everything properly. There is a pretty decent café and a gift shop on site.
If you’re in Calgary and just want to visit Drumheller, another great option would be to do this full day trip to see the museum and Badlands.
Where to stay in Drumheller
TOP PICK: Ramada by Wyndham Drumheller Hotel & Suites
This is where we stayed – the Ramada Drumheller is right in the town centre, minutes from the Royal Tyrrell Museum and the hoodoos trail. Rooms are spacious and spotless, with fast Wi‑Fi; there’s also a pool with a waterslide, and a decent gym.
Booking.com rating: 8.2. Click here to read reviews and book.
MIDRANGE: Canalta Jurassic Drumheller
Like the one in Brooks, the Canalta Jurassic is another standard but decent chain hotel, with modern rooms, a heated indoor pool and sauna. It’s just off Highway 9, only about 5 minutes from downtown Drumheller and around 10 minutes to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. There’s a Tim Hortons next door for the iconic Canadian experience (don’t forget the Timbits!).
Booking.com rating: 8.7. Click here to read reviews and book.
BUDGET: Newcastle Country Inn
The Newcastle Inn has a simple but well‑kept lodge vibe for those who prefer accommodation with a bit more character: rooms are cosy and practical, and there’s a decent breakfast. Located just a short drive east of Drumheller (~7 km) beside the Red Deer River valley, which is ideal for scenic walks.
Booking.com rating: 8.3. Click here to read reviews and book.
3/ The hands-on dino dig: Grande Prairie
By now on this Alberta dinosaur itinerary you’ll have done a lot of looking and learning. But now’s your chance to take things to the next level and get hands-on with real dinosaur fossils.
Why you should visit Grande Prairie on your Canada dinosaurs road trip
A little further off the beaten track, Grande Prairie doesn’t appear on many dinosaur tourism maps, but it should.
This region in northwestern Alberta is home to the Pipestone Creek bonebed, one of the densest fossil sites in North America.
It was discovered in the 1970s and has since produced thousands of bones, mainly from a huge herd of up to 10,000 horned dinosaurs called Pachyrhinosaurus which are thought to have all drowned in a massive flood.
Today, the site is still active, with new discoveries being made each year. It’s so prolific that they built a brand new, special museum here, the Philip J Currie Dinosaur Museum, to house everything they were finding (and to prevent the Royal Tyrrell getting all the credit).
The story also recently featured in the new BBC Walking with Dinosaurs documentary series.
Palaeontologist for a day at the Pipestone Creek bonebed
The main reason to visit Grande Prairie is for the chance to visit the Pipestone Creek bonebed on the museum’s Palaeontologist for a Day tour.
Most active dig sites are not open to the public for reasons that should be fairly obvious, but to help fund their work and share it with the world, the team here now offers amateurs the chance to get hands-on with a real, genuine, dinosaur fossil excavation.
The tour begins at the Philip J Currie Museum in the small town of Wembley, just outside Grande Prairie.
After a briefing, a short bus drive down a bumpy gravel road, and a five-minute walk through the forest, you’ll arrive at the dig site. This is a shallow trench near the creek itself, with a work area full of partially exposed fossils covered by a large tarpaulin.
At the time I was there, museum curator and lead palaeontologist Emily Bamforth pointed out ribs, toe bones, and even part of a Pachyrhinosaurus frill – all being carefully excavated.
You’ll learn how to recognise fossil from rock and how to use a hammer and awl to gently chip away the stone without damaging the fossils.
Along the way, you’ll learn as much as you want to know about how palaeontologists work – and you might even get to witness something truly special emerging from the ground after 72 million years.
Check out my video of the experience here (sorry, WordPress stretches Instagram embeds, it’s a known bug 🙁
Behind the scenes at the Philip J. Currie Museum
As part of the tour – or as a standalone experience – you can also go behind the scenes in the museum’s fossil preparation lab.
Here, you can see real specimens being cleaned and catalogued, often by volunteers – you’ll learn how bones are brought back to the lab in field jackets made from plaster and burlap, before being painstakingly cleaned by hand over many months of work.
We saw a huge Pachyrhinosaurus skull known as Big Sam which was only pulled from the ground last year, as well as Bosswell, another skull that had spent ten years in storage at the Royal Tyrrell Museum before being returned to Grande Prairie.
There’s also a storeroom packed with drawers full of bones and claws, and shelves stacked with specimens that may take years to analyse.
Read more: The Perfect Nova Scotia Road Trip In 5 days
How to visit Grande Prairie and Pipestone Creek
Grande Prairie is around seven hours’ drive northwest of Edmonton or Calgary, but there are regular flights from both cities which take about an hour. It’s also only about a four-hour drive from the gorgeous Jasper National Park.
The Philip J Currie Dinosaur Museum is in Wembley, a 15-minute drive from the airport.
The Palaeontologist for a Day experience runs only in the summer and includes a dig, lab tour and short hike. Booking is essential and spaces are limited. Participants must be 12 years old or over.
Tickets cost CAD $199 for an adult and include a packed lunch.
There’s also a fossil prep training programme where you can volunteer in the lab and help clean up real fossils – and a very gentle rafting trip (no rapids!) down the nearly Wapiti River to explore the landscapes where dinosaurs once roamed.
You’ll need your own vehicle or to rent a car to reach the museum, as there’s no public transport. Bring closed shoes, sun protection and clothes you don’t mind getting dirty.
Where to stay near Grande Prairie and the dinosaur fossil site
Delta Hotels by Marriott Grande Prairie Airport
The Delta by Marriott is conveniently located right beside the airport, with airport shuttle included and just about 10 minutes from downtown Grande Prairie. The rooms are generous and nicely-decorated, and there’s an indoor pool with a waterslide, plus a hot tub, lounge bar and decent onsite restaurant.
Booking.com rating: 8.6. Click here to read reviews and book.
Hampton Inn & Suites Grande Prairie
This is where I stayed. The Hampton Inn is another standard chain hotel, but rooms were clean and a good size, with a coffee station in the lobby and high-speed Wi‑Fi throughout. There’s a heated indoor pool, hot tub and waterslide for families. It’s located in the business district just off Highway 43 and only a short drive to the Grande Prairie Museum.
Booking.com rating: 8.7. Click here to read reviews and book.
When is the best time to do a dinosaur safari in Alberta
The best time to follow Alberta’s dinosaur trail is from late May to early October, when the weather is warm and most tours and outdoor sites are open.
July and August are the busiest months, especially at Dinosaur Provincial Park and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, so it’s best to book tours and accommodation in advance.
In summer, temperatures can climb into the high 20s or low 30s, particularly in the Badlands, where there’s little shade. Bring plenty of water, sun cream, and a hat if you’re walking or digging. In the north, around Grande Prairie, the weather is generally cooler, but rain is more common.
If you’re planning a trip around fossil-hunting or hiking, avoid early spring and late autumn, when rain and mud can make some trails inaccessible and safety restrictions may apply.
If you want to avoid peak-season crowds but still have access to all the experiences, aim for late June or early September.
I visited in mid-May, when we had decent weather with a bit of rain, and the temperatures were cool and comfortable.
How to reach Alberta’s dinosaur hotspots
Alberta is a large province and the key dinosaur sites are spread across several hundred kilometres, so it’s important to plan your route.
The two main arrival points are Calgary and Edmonton, both of which have international airports.
Calgary is the most convenient base for visiting Dinosaur Provincial Park and Drumheller, while Edmonton works if you’re heading north to Grande Prairie.
From Edmonton, you can drive to Grande Prairie in about five hours, or fly in just over an hour with regular regional services.
To complete a full dinosaur-themed loop, you could do what we did – start in Calgary, visit Dinosaur Provincial Park and Drumheller, then fly north to Grande Prairie.
At the end, you could depart via Edmonton, or do what we did and carry on to Jasper for a few days.
This route requires around a week to ten days if you want to allow enough time at each location without rushing.
There’s no practical public transport between these sites, so you’ll need to hire a car.
Roads are in good condition, and driving in summer is straightforward, with clear signage and frequent fuel stops – and the scenery, particularly through the Badlands, up into the Peace Country near Grande Prairie, and from Jasper back to Calgary along the stunning Icefields Parkway, is spectacular.
Or why not do the trip in reverse, start in Vancouver and take the Rocky Mountaineer train from Vancouver to Jasper. Then pick up a rental car and drive to Grande Prairie from there.
Where else to see wildlife in Alberta
As I’ve just mentioned, once you’ve had your fill of dinosaurs, there’s more wildlife and outdoors beauty to enjoy if you head to Jasper National Park.
Jasper is just a four-hour drive from Grande Prairie and one of my favourite places in Canada – this was my second visit to the area and I was so delighted to be back!
Read more about why I love the place so much – and what there is to see and do there, in these three posts:
- 4 Days In Jasper National Park: An Awesome Jasper Itinerary
- 18 Stunning Photo Spots In Jasper National Park
- Jasper In Fall: 10 Reasons Autumn Is The Best Time To Visit
And that’s it! I hope this post about dinosaurs in Alberta and how to do a dinosaur safari was useful. Good luck with your trip planning and I hope you have an amazing time visiting Canada’s dinosaur parks soon!
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My favourite travel tools and brands
To help you organise your trip, here’s a short list of some of the brands and tools I use over and over again when I’m planning my travels. You can see more on my Travel Resources page.
- Booking.com: A huge range of hotels to choose from, often with free cancellation. If you book hotels regularly you can earn discounts. I’m on Genius Level 3 which gets me 20% off!
- Expedia: Another great place to find hotels and Expedia also sell flights, car hire, and loads more all in one place.
- Skyscanner: The only place I ever go to search for flights and compare prices.
- Flight Centre: Booking a more complicated route? Let Flight Centre organise it for you (and deal with the drama when something goes wrong).
- Priority Pass: I love having access to 1600+ airport lounges when I fly, allowing me to enjoy my time at the airport. Buy through my link and you get up to 20% off!
- Airalo: Say goodbye to ridiculous mobile roaming charges. Did you know you can now buy ane-SIM, install it in your phone before you leave home, and then use data abroad at local prices? Game changer. Get US$3 credit with code BELLA5735.
- TourRadar: If you prefer group travel and organised tours, TourRadar has a huge range of fantastic tours from respected operators. They’re very helpful and have 4.5 stars on TrustPilot.
- Viator: Part of the TripAdvisor brand, Viator is another great place to search for group adventures and day trips.
- GetYourGuide: A great place to find local tours and day trips in your destination.
- Wex Photo Video: The UK’s best camera gear store.
- Ellis Brigham: Looking for good quality backpacks, travel clothes and other gear? Ellis Brigham is where I buy almost all of mine.
- Rentalcars.com: Part of the Booking.com family and the world’s largest online car rental service, with 24/7 customer service.
- World Nomads Travel Insurance: I never ever travel without travel insurance and nor should you!
Where to next?
If you liked this Canada dinosaurs post, why not try some of my other archaeology and history posts?
- 8 Must-See Ancient Egyptian Temples (Ranked By Wow Factor)
- Tikal Guatemala: My Essential Guide To The Iconic Maya Ruins
- How To Visit Perge Ancient City Ruins In Antalya, Turkey
- Aspendos Ruins And Theatre In Turkey: The Essential Guide
- The Ruins Of Troy Turkey: How To Visit Homer’s Ancient City
- Gordion in Turkey: City of King Midas and the Golden Touch
- An Unhelpful Guide To… Aztec Ruins In Mexico
- An Unhelpful Guide to… Herculaneum Ruins
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