Horsethief Canyon Badlands with paleonologist, Drumheller

Description:

Horsethief Canyon is the rarely marvelled gem in this prehistoric playground. It’s a 10-kilometre jaunt up quiet Highway 838 (the North Dinosaur Trail), northwest of the region’s Royal Tyrrell Museum. A descent in the canyon leads us into the land of strange outcrops of rock that are a kaleidoscope of geology and history, a mingling of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals. The confluence of factors here unveil a landscape found in only a few places on Earth – and rarely so close to a large city. The canyon is T-shaped, running roughly half a kilometre by one kilometre out to the wider Red Deer River Valley (cut from the land when the last ice age ended about 10,000 years ago), terrain that can occupy most of an afternoon in the absence of officially marked trails. Here you can look in on the last years of the Cretaceous Period, 70 million years ago, the end of the age of dinosaurs. Among the notable specimens uncovered in the Horsethief is a horned dinosaur with a thick nose named Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis.

Carpool Meet Place:

Meet at 9:30 am at Horsethief Canyon Parking lot

Directions:

We’ll drive 1.5 hours to Drumheller and continue 10 minutes (11.6 km) past the Royal Tyrell Museum along  AB-838/Dinosaur Trail northbound before turning left into the parking area signed for Horsethief Canyon. Here is the Google map: https://goo.gl/maps/2UaXuzBPR8tom3kr9

Distance/Length:

Rated (AL/MOD), 10 km + 100 meters elevation gain: 3-4 hours hiking time

Carpool Option:

When possible, carpooling will be arranged from Calgary (location above). It is not guaranteed but may be an option.