Friday, July 14th (Day 10)

Heading to Dinosaur P.P. today. Since it’s two hours away from Drumheller, we’re taking Nala and just pairing off for the bus tour in the am, then again in the pm. Should be an interesting day.

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Smells like wildfire smoke here (not as bad as in Toronto those few days). Just waiting in the car with Nala while mom and dad do the Explorer’s Bus Tour. Mom and I did the same one in the morning. The nature preserve makes up 70% of the park, so you have to go on a guided tour to see it. The bus takes you to a few key stops and tells you about the indigenous people, the settlers, and the palaeontologists that have been each used the area. Saw a few fossil pieces on the ground (they’re everywhere apparently – if it’s bubbly, boney, or brown). Saw John Ware’s cabin (a black slave who brought cattle into Alberta after the Civil War). Drove the scenic route around the perimeter of the park to see the badlands landscape. They have a few self-guided hikes you can do in the park, but we just got lunch at the cafe, then it was dad’s turn for the tour. All the fossils are from 75 million years ago, as that’s how deep the glacier that passed through the area dug down. More than half of the fossil here are the duck-billed Hadrosaur from the late Cretaceous period. Fossils occur if the dinosaur dies and gets covered with sediment quickly. I think the dinosaur death pose is arms up, tail up, head back.

**Forgot to mention the park is 2 hours from Drumheller and the family’s museum. Think people book tours and show up in Drumheller for them not realizing.

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Mom and I went back to the Royal Tyrell when we got back. It’s just a few minutes from our hotel. Saw a lot of what we missed last night. We were still tired, but I’d downloaded the app and figured out what to look for. Still missed the garden that had plant relatives from the Cretaceous period, but saw everything else. The path is not the most obvious in spots through the museum I guess.

**Will post more pics tomorrow