Day Trips North and East: Dinosaurs, Badlands and Prairie Towns
Fossil beds, hoodoos, a coal mine, the world’s tallest tepee and a Starship Enterprise, all within about three hours of Lethbridge. Here is where to go, why it is worth it, and how the weather changes the trip.
In Simple Terms
Head north or east and the prairie cracks open into badlands: bare, striped hills cut by rivers through rock from the age of dinosaurs. In between are small towns with giant statues, old irrigation works and volunteer-run museums. Most trips are long days, so start early. Each place below has a weather tip.
Jump to: Drumheller and the Royal Tyrrell Museum · Willow Creek Hoodoos · Horseshoe Canyon · Atlas Coal Mine · Star Mine bridge and Wayne’s bridges · Rosebud · Dinosaur Provincial Park · Brooks Aqueduct and Kinbrook Island · Medicine Hat · Cypress Hills and Fort Walsh · Red Rock Coulee · Vulcan · Little Bow Provincial Park · Coaldale, Taber and Bow Island · Foremost and Etzikom · Calgary highlights
Drumheller and the Royal Tyrrell Museum
The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology is Canada’s dinosaur museum, set right in the badlands of Midland Provincial Park, 6 km northwest of Drumheller on Highway 838. It is a working research museum, and most of what you see was dug out of Alberta rock. Downtown Drumheller has dinosaur statues on street corners.
- Allow at least half a day. Admission is charged; outdoor programs such as guided fossil hikes are booked separately.
- Hours are shorter outside summer, so check before you drive.
- On the Dinosaur Trail, peek into the Little Church, which seats six people.
Downtown, you can climb 106 stairs inside the 25-metre World’s Largest Dinosaur and look out from its jaws.
The valley floor holds heat. Walk outdoors in the morning and save the museum for mid-afternoon.
Visit the official website ↗ · Travel Drumheller ↗ · World’s Largest Dinosaur ↗
Willow Creek Hoodoos
Hoodoos are columns of soft rock topped with a harder cap that shields them from the rain. The Willow Creek Hoodoos, about 15 minutes east of Drumheller on Highway 10, are some of the best known in Alberta. They are a Provincial Historic Resource, which means they are protected by law, and damaging them can bring heavy fines.
- A free, 30-to-45-minute stop on the way to the Atlas Coal Mine.
- Stay on marked paths and do not climb the hoodoos. Once a cap breaks, the column washes away.
After rain, the badlands’ bentonite clay turns as slick as soap and sticks to your boots in heavy clumps. Wait until the ground has dried before you walk off the main path.
Horseshoe Canyon
You pull off flat prairie, walk a few steps, and the ground drops into a curved canyon of striped hills. Hundreds of thousands of people visit each year. Kneehill County runs the site, with pay parking.
- The rim view takes 15 minutes. A hike down and back takes an hour or two, and the climb out is steeper than it looks.
- Nearby Horsethief Canyon, on the Dinosaur Trail, is a viewpoint only. The land below is private, so there is no hiking there.
The canyon edges are unfenced and can crumble. Keep children and dogs close at the rim. Kneehill County closes Horseshoe Canyon and the Orkney Viewpoint for the off-season, so check the county’s Horseshoe Canyon page before you go.
A thunderstorm can roll across the flat land above the canyon very quickly. If you see one building, climb out early, before the trail turns to grease.
Atlas Coal Mine National Historic Site
Before the dinosaurs brought tourists, the Drumheller valley ran on coal. The Atlas Mine operated from 1936 to 1984, and it still has the last wooden tipple in Canada. A tipple is the tall timber building where coal was sorted and loaded. Of the thousands that once stood across the country, this is the one left.
- The best parts (the tipple, the mine portal hike, the mine train) are on guided tours. Some tours have age limits.
- Allow two to three hours. Admission is charged. Wear closed-toe shoes.
Most of the site is outdoors with little shade. On hot days, take a morning tour. On cool, windy days, bring a layer: the tipple is drafty.
Star Mine Suspension Bridge and the Bridges of Wayne
In Rosedale, a pedestrian suspension bridge sways 117 metres across the Red Deer River. Coal miners first walked it in 1931 to reach the Star Mine on the far bank, and it was rebuilt in 1958. Just past it, Highway 10X winds up a narrow coulee to the near-ghost town of Wayne, crossing the Rosebud River and old rail lines on a string of one-lane bridges. Travel Drumheller says the route is listed by Guinness for the most bridges in the shortest distance.
- The bridge is free and it bounces. Kids love it.
- On the one-lane bridges, yield to oncoming traffic. Some old bridges have been replaced in recent years, but the drive is still a classic.
The bridge sways more in wind. In winter, bridge decks and shady curves stay icy after the highway is bare.
Rosebud and Rosebud Theatre
Rosebud has fewer than 100 residents and a professional theatre company that performs all year. Shows at the Rosebud Opera House come with a buffet dinner and live music. It is about 35 km southwest of Drumheller. Book ahead.
Evening shows mean a dark drive home. In winter, check 511 Alberta first, because rural roads drift in fast when the wind rises.
Dinosaur Provincial Park
This is where many museum dinosaurs came from. The park has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979. More than 150 complete skeletons and more than 50 dinosaur species have been found here, a record of the late Cretaceous (about 75 million years ago) unmatched almost anywhere.
- Much of the park is a Natural Preserve that you can enter only on a guided tour. Tours sell out in summer, so book them before you book your accommodation.
- On your own: the Visitor Centre, the public loop road and short self-guided trails.
- No pets in the Visitor Centre or on guided programs. A riverside campground makes this a good overnight trip.
Alberta Parks warns of prairie rattlesnakes, black widow spiders and scorpions in the park. Stay on trails, watch your hands and feet, and give snakes room. If someone is bitten, call 9-1-1. The nearest hospital is in Brooks.
July and August highs can reach 35°C in the coulees. Carry at least a litre of water per person, plus a hat and sunscreen. If a storm is coming, cut your hike short. After rain, wait half a day to a full day before walking on the clay.
Visit the official website ↗ · Trip tips and tour booking ↗ · Safety tips ↗
Brooks Aqueduct and Kinbrook Island Provincial Park
The Brooks Aqueduct looks like a giant concrete centipede striding across the prairie. The Canadian Pacific Railway’s irrigation division built it in the early 1910s to carry water across a shallow valley 3.2 km wide, with the water channel held up to 20 metres above the ground. It is now a National and Provincial Historic Site.
About 13 km south of Brooks, Kinbrook Island Provincial Park sits on Lake Newell, one of the largest and warmest human-made lakes in southern Alberta. You can swim, paddle and fish, and a wetland trail is good for birdwatching.
- The aqueduct is a quick, wheelchair-accessible stop. Combine both with Dinosaur Provincial Park for a two-day trip.
Lake Newell is wide open to the wind, and whitecaps build fast. Paddlers should stay near shore.
Brooks Aqueduct official website ↗ · Kinbrook Island Provincial Park ↗
Medicine Hat: Saamis Tepee, Medalta and the Gas City
The city’s name comes from Saamis, loosely translated as a medicine man’s hat. Beside the Trans-Canada stands the Saamis Tepee, billed as the world’s tallest. It was built for the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics and is about as tall as a 20-storey building, with storyboards on Indigenous culture and history. Below it is the Saamis Archaeological Site, a Provincial Historic Site where Indigenous peoples camped and processed bison from about 1390 to 1820.
The city sits on huge natural gas fields, which earned it the nickname “the Gas City.” Rudyard Kipling said it had “all hell for a basement.” Gas helped power industry such as Medalta Potteries, founded in 1916, which by 1924 made about three-quarters of Canada’s stoneware. Its Historic Clay District is now a living museum with working studios.
- Medalta: allow 2 hours. Look for the four beehive kilns. Admission is charged.
- Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre: downtown museum, archives and gallery (pay-what-you-will).
- Police Point Park: riverside trails, a Nature Centre and good birding. In winter, rent skis or snowshoes there.
- Echo Dale Regional Park: a boating lake and a free historic farm. The swim lake is closed until further notice.
Medicine Hat bills itself as Canada’s sunniest city, and summer afternoons are often hotter than Lethbridge. Walk in the morning and save the museums for the heat of the day.
Tourism Medicine Hat ↗ · Saamis Tepee ↗ · Medalta ↗ · Esplanade ↗ · Police Point Park ↗ · Echo Dale Regional Park ↗
Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park and Fort Walsh
From flat prairie you climb into lodgepole pine forest. The last Ice Age glaciers passed around these hills, and Alberta Parks calls them “the highest point between the Rocky Mountains and Labrador.” The park straddles the Alberta–Saskatchewan border. Elkwater Lake has a beach and marina, Reesor Lake is quieter, and Head of the Mountain is the highest point in the hills.
On the Saskatchewan side, Fort Walsh National Historic Site marks the North West Mounted Police post set up in 1875. It followed the 1873 Cypress Hills Massacre, when American wolf hunters attacked a Nakoda camp and killed many people. Sitting Bull and the Lakota later sought refuge nearby, and the fort was a site of treaty payments.
- More than 60 km of trails, plus paddling and fishing in summer and skiing in winter.
- Parks Canada warns that online map directions to Fort Walsh have sent people the wrong way. Contact the site for the best route.
- A Dark-Sky Preserve since 2004.
The hills make their own weather: cooler and wetter than Medicine Hat, with fog and summer storms. Pack a jacket even in July. Some roads close after heavy rain.
Visit the official website ↗ · Fort Walsh (Parks Canada) ↗ · Dark-Sky Preserve (RASC) ↗
Red Rock Coulee Natural Area
Walk over the prairie edge and the coulee is scattered with giant red boulders, some about 2.5 metres across. They are concretions: mineral cement layered around bits of shell or bone in ancient sea-floor mud. The cement is harder than the soil around it, so the boulders stayed behind as the land eroded. Iron makes them red.
- Free, with no visitor centre. Allow one to two hours and pack out your garbage.
- Prickly pear cactus grows here, so wear real shoes.
Prairie rattlesnakes live here. Watch the ground around rocks, keep dogs leashed and do not reach into crevices. Bring your own water; there is none on site.
There is no shade at all. On hot, windy days, the sun and wind dry you out faster than you think. In wet weather, the access road and coulee slopes turn to sticky gumbo.
Vulcan: Star Trek Capital of Canada
A prairie town named Vulcan was always going to have fun with it. On June 10, 1995, the town unveiled a replica Starship Enterprise named FX6-1995-A, after the local airport’s code. The Vulcan Tourism & Trek Station looks like a landed spaceship. Inside are Star Trek memorabilia, costumes for photos and a gift shop. Each July, VulCon brings Star Trek fans to town.
- A one-hour stop. The Trek Station is closed in winter.
Highway 23 north to Vulcan crosses open farmland where crosswinds and blowing snow are common in winter. In summer, the same fields are prime hail country from June to August, so watch the radar on stormy afternoons.
Little Bow Provincial Park
Little Bow is a big prairie campground on a breezy reservoir, popular with sailors, windsurfers, anglers and families. It is close enough to Lethbridge for a beach day.
- Beach, fishing, and powered and unpowered campsites. Bring a canopy for shade on the beach.
The wind that makes this a sailing spot can flip a canoe. Paddle early, before afternoon winds rise, and watch for storms building in the west.
Close to Home: Coaldale, Taber and Bow Island
Highway 3 east is a string of farm towns, and each one has a reason to stop.
- Coaldale: The Alberta Birds of Prey Centre calls itself Canada’s largest birds of prey facility. Hawks, falcons, eagles and owls, wetland paths and flying demonstrations. It is seasonal. The Gem of the West Museum tells Coaldale’s story.
- Taber: Southern Albertans plan their August around Taber corn, which locals credit to the area’s long sunny days. Cornfest, held on the last full weekend of August before the long weekend, bills itself as the largest free family festival in western Canada.
- Bow Island: Pinto MacBean, a 5.5-metre (18-foot) cartoon bean, stands beside Highway 3. He was unveiled in 1992 to celebrate the town’s dry edible bean industry.
This stretch of Highway 3 is flat and exposed, so strong west winds push hard on campers and trailers. If a summer hailstorm is coming, wait it out under a gas station canopy, not on the open road.
Alberta Birds of Prey Centre ↗ · Gem of the West Museum (Travel Alberta) ↗ · Taber Cornfest ↗ · Pinto MacBean (Town of Bow Island) ↗
Foremost and the Etzikom Windmill Museum
Highway 61 follows the Red Coat Trail, the route of the North West Mounted Police’s 1874 march west. In Etzikom, the Etzikom Museum and Historic Windmill Centre has gathered vintage windmills of every size and design, the machines that pumped water for prairie homesteads. Foremost, to the west, has historical society displays and a dam with a walking path.
- Combine Foremost, Etzikom and Red Rock Coulee into one loop. Museums keep summer hours, so phone ahead.
The same steady wind that once turned these windmills now drives the modern wind turbines you will see across southern Alberta.
This is some of the driest, windiest country in Canada. Fill your tank and water bottles in Foremost or Medicine Hat, because services are few and far between.
Etzikom Museum ↗ · Etzikom on Travel Alberta ↗ · Village of Foremost ↗
Calgary Highlights (Quick Hits)
If you are already heading north, three Calgary stops are worth the detour:
- Heritage Park Historical Village: one of North America’s largest living history museums, with a vintage train and the year-round Gasoline Alley Museum.
- Wilder Institute/Calgary Zoo: animals from around the world, plus Prehistoric Park, a seasonal area of life-size dinosaurs that lived in Alberta.
- TELUS Spark Science Centre: hands-on science for every age, with a dome theatre. Check for touring exhibitions.
In winter, Highway 2 can swing from chinook-bare to blowing snow in a day. Check 511 Alberta both ways.
Before you go
- Check the Lethbridge forecast and the forecast for where you are going. The badlands, the Cypress Hills and Lethbridge can have very different weather on the same day.
- Check road conditions on 511 Alberta ↗, especially in winter, after storms and before driving gravel or one-lane roads.
- Hours, tours and seasons change. Many rural museums and attractions are open only from May to September, so always check the official site.
- Book guided tours early, especially at Dinosaur Provincial Park and the Atlas Coal Mine.
- Summer badlands kit: water, a hat, sunscreen and closed-toe shoes with grip.
- June to August is hail and thunderstorm season. If a storm builds, get off exposed ridges and into your vehicle.
- Leave fossils, rocks and artifacts where you find them.
Keep exploring
Details change. Always check the official website for hours, fees, closures and reservations before you go. Drive times are approximate from central Lethbridge.