I’ve never been much of a history buff, I’m more interested in what a region’s culinary offerings are over what happened thousands of years ago.
But when you have a five year old, you learn to appreciate the “why” stage, which – as parents know – comes with 50,000 questions per day about every possible things that exists in this universe.
So, you have to adapt, and fast.
No five year old cares, nor will try, strange new foods or cares how they are made. If it’s not on the kids menu, don’t even bother.
As the summer months roll around, and there is no preschool or school to occupy them, and summer camps are out of the question, what do you do to entertain and challenge a five year old’s mind?
Well, if your child is anything like ours, dinosaurs play a big part of her creative and educational curiosity.
So we were Drumheller bound, and it was amazing.
And I really mean that, the Royal Tyrrell Museum is a must see, even for those that aren’t particularly interested in the history.
Not only are the exhibits world class, the price was completely reasonable.
For a family of three admission was $22, now if you have a family you know, all-day entertainment doesn’t come that cheap.
The only hiccup on our part was the timing, we thought “oh, we’ll go to the dinosaur museum on Sunday in the summer that will be good, hardly anyone will be there.”
Turns out, everyone that lives in southern Alberta, as well as many that don’t, were there.
The place was packed, which is good, but maneuvering through thousands of children and parents was a challenge.
Until you get to T-Rex and everything changes. That thing is massive and so completely well done that your imagination starts to run and you start to imagine it alive.
I can’t image what the children were thinking, all I know is the questions stopped for a good five minutes (which is heaven) and her eyes got really wide.
From the mighty T-Rex to the Stegosaurus, Triceratops, to some strange-looking sea creatures, to the biggest dragon fly you’ll every see; it’s wall-to-wall packed with enough fossils, skeletons and interactive exhibits for the kids to really ignite their imagination.
Tourism Alberta is always encouraging local residents to “stay-cation” and explore your own backyard, and while we all know how amazing our backyard is, you sometimes forget what hidden gems we have here.
I’ve been to the Royal BC Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum and while they are impressive, there were nothing compared to the Royal Tyrrell.
And it’s just an hour from Airdrie on country highways with beautiful scenery all the way – how can you beat that?
If you aren’t interested in Dinosaurs, go for the scenery.
It’s all prairie fields until one turn and you are spiraling down into the valley and it looks like desert climate on either side.
The Hoodoos are beautiful and provide the perfect backdrop to explore the ancient world.
According to Travel Drumheller, “Hoodoos take millions of years to form and stand five to seven metres tall. Each hoodoo is a sandstone pillar resting on a thick base of shale that is capped by a large stone. Hoodoos are very fragile and can erode completely if their capstone is dislodged (in other words, no climbing allowed).”
I would encourage anyone that hasn’t been to go, or hasn’t been in a while to go again, it’s completely worth it.
The museum is open during the summer months from May 15 to Aug. 21 every day from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., the museum suggests allowing two to three hours to go through everything, but we spent far longer than that.
