Canada
The Burgess Shale
Half-billion-year-old fossils of Earth's first complex creatures lie exposed on a Rockies ridgeline.
The fossils in the Walcott Quarry are 508 million years old — imprints of the moment complex life appeared on Earth. Creatures with no modern descendants lie preserved in extraordinary detail on a mountainside in the Canadian Rockies. You are looking at the Cambrian Explosion.
The Burgess Shale in Yoho National Park, British Columbia, is one of the most important fossil sites in the world. Discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1909, the site preserves soft-bodied organisms from the Cambrian period in detail found nowhere else — eyes, guts, and appendages of animals that evolved and vanished before anything we'd recognise as modern life existed. Anomalocaris, Hallucigenia, and Wiwaxia are among the thousands of specimens that have fundamentally reshaped our understanding of evolution. Access is by guided hike only — a strenuous full-day trek to the quarry at 2,300 metres elevation, led by Parks Canada interpreters who explain what you're seeing.
Solo
The guided hike to the Burgess Shale quarry is physically demanding and intellectually thrilling — the combination of mountain scenery and half-billion-year-old fossils rewards the curious solo hiker.
Friends
The full-day guided hike to the quarry is a shared challenge that ends with the extraordinary reward of seeing fossils of Earth's first complex life on the mountainside.
Couple
A strenuous hike together to one of the most significant fossil sites on Earth — the shared effort and the extraordinary reward at the quarry create a day couples remember forever.
- Fossils of the Cambrian Explosion — the moment complex life appeared on Earth, 508 million years ago — lie exposed on the mountainside.
- Guided hikes are the only access — a strenuous full-day trek to the Walcott Quarry at 2,300 metres elevation.
- Anomalocaris, Hallucigenia, and other creatures with no modern descendants are preserved in extraordinary detail.
- Charles Doolittle Walcott discovered the site in 1909 — it fundamentally changed our understanding of evolution.
Post-hike elk burgers at Truffle Pigs Bistro in Field — the village at the trailhead.
Craft beer and game sausages at the Kicking Horse Saloon after ten hours on the mountain.
Trail mix consumed at 2,300 metres while staring at 508-million-year-old sea creatures.
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