I'm going to tick off another UNESCO World Heritage site today as we travel two-and-a-half hours from Calgary in an easterly direction. I am hopeless with directions, but I do know that this will be the closest I have been to the province of Saskatchewan, one of two that I have not yet visited. But back to today’s story.
Pat is driving, so I can enjoy the view from my passenger seat. Again, we drive through rich agricultural land surrounding Calgary until we reach less fertile areas that are used for grazing and further still until we come to arid ridges, land that has been eroded by water and wind to create unusual rock formations. These are called Badlands due to the arid rocky terrain and the inability to use much of it for agricultural purposes. As we enter the park, I realise that despite it being referred to as badlands, there is a flat, fertile floodplain that was used as farmland as late as the early twentieth century. The river systems that formed this floodplain over millennia had attracted a diverse number of freshwater vertebrates, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. Plant fossils abound here and include ferns, conifers, gingko, and aquatic plants.
We have a tour booked for the early afternoon, so we eat at the onsite café, where I enjoy a meal of dinosaur toes and coffee before exploring John Ware’s cabin, once the home of the first African-American cowboy, and an important person in Canadian ranching history. Then, with minutes to spare, we arrive at the designated place to start the tour.
I have long held a fascination with fossils including dinosaurs, and I am looking forward to this tour, where I hope to learn more about the past giants of the natural world. This park was established on 27 June 1955 with the goal of protecting the fossil beds found here some thirty years prior, and it was given UNESCO World Heritage status on 26 October 1979 for its significant badlands, riparian (I love that word – it reminds me of Mrs Bucket) habitats, and for the importance of the fossils found here.
Our bus leaves the visitor centre, drives through a camping ground to a restricted area, which is cordoned off for tours and for the archaeologists working in the park. Since this is a work site, visitors, except for those on the tours, are prohibited from entering this zone. Our guide points towards some areas where scientists are busily working, painstakingly brushing hardened soil from fossilised bones. Already I am looking forward to what I am about to see today.
The moon-like landscape is fascinating. The sediments have formed layers over a period of approximately 1.5 million years. But these are the more recent layers. The earliest relics are buried deep beneath where we are standing. The eroded cliffs display evidence of Tectonic uplift as I follow the curves and folds of the layers with my eyes. The Dinosaur Park Formation, which contains most of the dinosaur skeletons was formed (give or take) 76 million years ago. These numbers are mind-boggling and is an indication of just how old this earth really is. It is also a reminder of just how recently humans have inhabited the earth.
There is an abundance of vegetation, sage, saltbush and other low-growing natives, but my favourite is the prickly pear that is currently in full bloom. Their delicate yellow and pink papery petals grow from the same thorny plant. Underfoot, there would be tiny fossils embedded in the shale, but I don’t have time to look for them between listening to the commentary and looking at the incredible view from this high point of the park. In the grey and red stripey canyon below, hoodoos, weird rock formations built from centuries of wind and rain look like ancient people, secret sentinels guarding their secrets within. Another hill, grey and rippled where centuries of running water has formed vertical ridges that form patterns like the folds of a curtain across the entire vista.
We are directed to a box lying on the ground. On closer inspection, I realise it’s not really a box, but a barrier built to stop people from walking on a fossilised spine with ribs poking from the ground. A few steps away, a dark red curvy line could be mistaken for rock; its a fossilised spine of some dinosaur or other. We continue in the bus, stopping and looking and even touching the vast rocky cliffs that hold so many secrets that nobody could possibly uncover them all. They say that only 10% of Egypt’s treasures have been uncovered, and I would guess that not even 5% of the natural treasures hidden within these mountains would ever be recovered.
We stop at a shelter built in a clearing, where we hear about the uncovering of a complete fossilised dinosaur skeleton. Without too much ado, our guide pulls out a key, opens the door and directs us around the display. Oh, and what a sight!
Inside the shed, on the ground lies an almost complete Corythosaurus, which was found in a river bed. Here I see the fossilised bones and tendons. Amazingly, this relic is curled up in what is called the death pose, as if it was hiding or protecting itself from some catastrophic event. Our guide said that they believe dinosaurs found in the death pose have probably drowned. I have seen many reconstructed, standing dinosaurs in various places, but this view of an almost intact creature has perhaps shown how even reptiles may have reacted in a crisis.
On a scale between 1 and 10, this incredible park scores, in my opinion, a 9.5. As we make our way wearily back to Calgary after such a busy day, I can thank Pat for her hospitality and her willingness to show me so very much of her province. This has been a wonderful experience and the perfect end to five weeks travelling throughout the United States of America and Canada. As I start the long journey home, I have much to reflect upon and much gratitude for the experiences I have shared along the way.
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