Canada
Drumheller
Martian hoodoos and T. rex bones jut from a badlands valley carved through Alberta wheat fields.
The hoodoos of Drumheller rise from the valley floor like alien sentinels — mushroom-shaped sandstone pillars carved by 75 million years of wind and water. Between them, T. rex bones jut from the exposed canyon walls, half-embedded in the Cretaceous-era rock.
Drumheller sits in the Alberta Badlands, a valley carved through the prairie by the Red Deer River. The Royal Tyrrell Museum houses one of the world's largest collections of complete dinosaur skeletons, many excavated from the surrounding valley. The badlands stretch for kilometres in every direction, revealing fossils in the exposed canyon walls — guided hikes into the restricted zone let you walk among bones still embedded in the rock. The world's largest dinosaur model stands in town, a T. rex you can climb inside for a view from the jaws. The landscape is genuinely Martian — striated hoodoos, dry coulees, and exposed rock layers spanning 75 million years.
Family
The Royal Tyrrell Museum and the chance to walk among real dinosaur fossils in the badlands make Drumheller one of the most exciting destinations in Canada for children — and for parents who secretly love dinosaurs.
Solo
The badlands hikes and the museum's research galleries reward solo visitors with the patience to look closely. The exposed fossils in the canyon walls are a private thrill.
Friends
A road trip to Drumheller — hoodoo hikes, the Tyrrell Museum, and climbing inside the world's largest T. rex — is the kind of absurd-yet-profound group adventure that works at any age.
- The Royal Tyrrell Museum houses one of the world's largest collections of complete dinosaur skeletons, many excavated from the surrounding valley.
- Hoodoos — mushroom-shaped sandstone pillars carved by erosion — line the valley like alien sentinels.
- The Badlands stretch for kilometres in every direction, revealing 75-million-year-old fossils in the exposed canyon walls.
- The world's largest dinosaur model stands in town — a T. rex you can climb inside for a view from the jaws.
Alberta beef burger at the Last Chance Saloon in nearby Wayne — population 27.
Diner pie at Yavis Family Restaurant, the kind of small-town place where everyone knows your order.
Saskatoon berry sundaes from the ice cream shop on the main drag.
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Gilf Kebir
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Mount Robson
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Open-pit asbestos mines swallowed half the town — the craters remain, eerie and vast.