Welcome to the Badlands

 Day 1:  It's quite a trek through rural Alberta to get to Dinosaur Provincial Park, but when you are greeted by this stunning view of the Badlands from the upper parking lot you've hit the jackpot.  YES, if you look in the above photo you'll notice that I have my hand holding Xavier's shirt as he tends to see rocks as something to climb on or over and not a barrier to stay behind.  It's quite the cliff.  Jackson can be trusted.  The "X" factor however needs a helping hand LOL.

 Cool dudes inside the field centre still wearing their sunglasses!

Hoodoos form the bulk of the terrain, thanks to erosion of the sandstone and the slower rate of erosion of the ironstone "cap" on top.   Cool "popcorn" rock as well, really called mudstone that absorbs water and swells to about 10x it's mass and gets really slippery and slimy  (we didn't see a drop of rain so I'm only going by the info signs!)

 Our little dinosaur hunters look well equipped, hats, sunscreen & bug spray needed here and lots of water - good thing we came in the fall; apparently "hellaciously" hot in summer.  You can camp right on site too! 

Real-life fossil displays in situ, like this headless Hadrosaur, give a more accurate idea of how the paleontologists work.  

Day 2:  Drumheller

 The World's Largest T-Rex -  you pay $3 and you get to climb up the stairs as many times as you want for the whole day (ha!)  - it's a good view of the city out of the dino's mouth and if you look closely you can see the splash pad and wading pool / fountain where the boys galloped around for an hour cooling off. 

We had to buy one of those dino dig rocks that you break open with plastic hammer and pick axe tools to find a little dino inside.  Mommy was smart enough to get the boys to do this messy  job in their swimsuits at the outdoor picnic table next to the splash pad.  

The Royal Teryll Museum - awesome!   Hundreds of amazing fossils.  We've been to the ROM previously to see the dinosaur display, but there's no comparison with the amount of dinosaur fossils found in Alberta. 

 T-Rex discovered in Alberta

Staring contest:  

Woolly Mammoth being attacked by sabre-tooth tigers

First souvenirs from our trip - a pair of cuddly T-Rex dinos nicknamed "Crunch" & "Munch".  We'll see if they fit into the suitcases for the flight . . .  (eye rolling)   They did carry them around all day and they are guarding over the boys from the couch while they are sleeping tonight.