Drumheller Day Trip

This post is super overdue. We took our road trip through the Rockies nearly six months ago, and ever since then I’ve meant to share my thoughts on Drumheller. {Sorry, I got sidetracked by food, food, and some more food!} Since some of you on the West Coast might be planning a road trip over spring break, I thought it was about time that I share this favourite find of the Pink Chai family!drumheller with kids

Drumheller is a town in the Red Deer Valley, in the badlands of Alberta. It’s also called Dinosaur Valley because of the large amounts of dinosaur fossils that have been discovered in this area since the early 1900’s. A full triceratops fossil was even discovered in the area in 2012!  

royal tyrrel museumdrumheller 5{Just doing my posing thing!}drumheller 7

My kids had zero interest in visiting Drumheller, but the dinosaur geek in me (I wanted to be a paleontologist when I was a kid among other things) couldn’t skip over the Royal Tyrrel Museum. An entire museum devoted to dinosaurs – sign me up! The good news is; the moment we got there the kids were in love. There is just so much to see and do at the museum, it’s impossible not to be interested. In fact, even my mom enjoyed the visit, and she’s really not a museum person. 

royal tyrell museum{Measuring ourselves next to a T-Rex leg}

The one disappointing thing about our visit was that no one told us that you have to purchase tickets for experiences right at the door, so we missed out on the Jr. Dig & fossil making workshop. The idea is pretty cool; tickets to the museum are very reasonably priced, and then you can choose to add on excursions or adventures based on what your kid’s like (hikes, digs, art classes etc). The only hiccup is that the experiences only happen at certain times of the day and sell out really fast. My advice, purchase them ahead of time online. drumheller with kids

Drumheller gets really hot, it’s like a desert land in the summer. So we actually skipped over the Hoodoos (which are a major attraction), grabbed some slurpees and headed to the Drumheller Visitor Centre. This visitor’s centre does not get enough press! They have the best wading pool and sprinkler set up for kids. We weren’t even carrying our swimsuits, so Z ended up jumping in the pool wearing one of my mom’s tank tops as a dress. She had a hoot, and the rest of just wished we could join her for a swim.

drumheller{Selfies inside a dinosaur’s mouth – because we are cool like that!}

Also on site at the visitor’s centre is the World’s Largest Dinasour. For just $10 and a serious leg workout, your family can climb to the top of this structure and peek out onto the badlands from the mouth of the T-Rex. This was one of our favourite stops on the trip and a must do if you are driving through the badlands. 

Before we took the road trip last summer Mr. T and the kids were convinced that they would hate road tripping, but in the end we all loved it. If you are unsure about taking a long drive with kids, maybe start with a weekend getaway? If you live in BC, Alberta, or Saskatchewan though, a drive to Drumheller is a must do for families!

 

Share:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.