As sometimes happens with the best of plans, Mother Nature intervened and our ever changing route once again changed due to the much sooner than we hoped presence of Canadian winter. We had wanted to visit a friend in Rocky Mountain House then drive the David Thomspson Hwy. which is supposed to be beautiful. Instead we decide to backtrack to better weather and visit Drumheller and the Royal Tyrell Museum…
Real Alberta T-rex scull and model
Dome headed – 1st of its kind found
I had been to Drumheller 40 years ago with my parents while doing a road trip to visit my sister in Cold Lake Alberta. The town then was very small, with one hotel and a ferryman (you drive onto the ferry and the ferryman uses rope and pulleys to cross the river) – just like the Chris de Burgh song that I’ve always loved. The town has changed, but not a lot. It has a Main Street now with the usual Canadian Tire and fast food, more hotels, and a bridge across the river, but it has not grown out of control which is nice to see.
Drumheller is known as the Dinosaur capital of the world. In the 1880’s J.B. Tyrell went looking for coal and discovered dinosaur bones, starting the still ongoing excavation of the badlands and much later the building of the Royal Tyrell Museum which houses the world’s largest displays of dinosaurs. The displays are certainly impressive – large dinosaur fossils and full scale models. The museum is modern, interactive and well laid out.