The Ultimate Guide to Exploring Dinosaur Provincial Park with Kids
Updated 2026
You'll know you're getting close to Dinosaur Provincial Park when random dinosaurs start appearing on the horizon. Then, after four hours of prairie stretching in every direction from Edmonton the flat highway feels like it melts away and you're in the badlands. Just like that. There’s hoodoos, canyons, and 75-million-year-old riverbeds where more dinosaur species have been found than almost anywhere else on the planet.
Dinosaur Provincial Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a popular road trip from Edmonton for families. It's one of the richest fossil beds in the world. And it's one of those camping trips you've got to do at least a handful of times while the kids are little - because where else can your seven-year-old pick up a rock, lick their finger, press it to the surface, and announce they've found an actual dinosaur bone? (Yes, that's a real fossil test. Yes, they'll do it two hundred times.)
Here's everything we've learned about doing Dinosaur Provincial Park right with kids, after years of camping trips, side quests and road trips spent camping, exploring trails, learning on tours and interpretive programs and ending the day at a legendary saloon, the famous bridges, a hidden gems most families drive right past.
Traveling to Edmonton this summer? Read our three-day Edmonton family travel itinerary.
Getting There & Know Before You Go
How far in Dinosaur Provincial Park from Edmonton? Roughly 4.5 hours (about 470 km). The park is 48 km northeast of Brooks, off Highway 876.
Is there a fee to visit? There's no gate fee to visit the park — a rare free win.
Is there cell service? Limited to non-existent in the valley. Download your maps, tour confirmations, and podcasts before you leave the city.
The preserve is protected. Most of the park is a restricted natural preserve, only accessible on guided tours. And no matter how magical the find, fossils stay where they are — it's the law.
Camping at Dinosaur Provincial Park
You've got options, and all of them are memorable.
Dinosaur Campground sits right in the valley beside the Red Deer River, shaded by giant cottonwoods, with many sites backing onto the creek. There are over 120 RV- and tent-friendly sites (unserviced, powered, and pull-through), plus showers, coin laundry, a seasonal food concession at the Cretaceous Cafe, a dinosaur-themed playground, and a shallow creek. Waking up surrounded by hoodoos never gets old.
Camping is $31-39 per night and you can find a campground map.
Comfort Camping: Is glamping more your family’s adventure style? The park has seven canvas wall tents, each with a queen bed, a double futon, table and chairs, electric heater, fan, mini fridge, and a propane BBQ (propane included), plus a fire pit and picnic table outside. It's camping for families who don't want to haul a trailer four hours south. These book fast - so if they’re on your summer adventure list - book early in the season!
Booking tip: Regular campsites open 90 days ahead; comfort camping opens 180 days ahead on the Alberta Parks reservation site. There are no first-come, first-served sites. Summer weekends sell out months in advance, so set a calendar reminder and book the morning your window opens.
Not into camping? The town of Brooks -about 40 minutes away - has family-friendly hotel options with indoor pools — or for something with real character, the Patricia Hotel.
Forgot something? The Cretaceous Cafe has most things that you’ll need while camping - and even extras, like that fun powder that makes your campfire turn different colours. Don’t feel like cooking? They’re serving up food too!
What to Do at Dinosaur Provincial Park
You don't have to go far to experience the badlands - there are hoodoo paths straight from the campground, and the whole scenic loop is minutes away. You can walk to the badlands trails, or hop in the car and do the loop, exploring while you go. Expect to do this loop at least a few times with your kids in tow - it doesn’t lose its magic!
Download the flora checklist and bird checklist and treat it like a scavenger hunt during your adventure. Pair this with the Merlin Bird app and you’ve got a full weekend of natural-exploring!
Start at the Visitor Centre. Right at the top of the valley, it's got interpretive exhibits, fossil displays, a theatre, a gift shop, and it's where you book and depart for guided tours. It's also a fantastic place to watch a summer storm roll across the badlands.
Take a guided tour - seriously, book one. The best parts of the park (the natural preserve, where the bone beds are) can only be entered with a guide. Programs run roughly May through October and range from one-hour sessions to full-day digs:
The Explorer's Bus Tour. A hop-on style bus through the preserve, perfect for young families and little legs. Start with this tour and you’ll want to cross the rest off of your Alberta bucket list.
Fossil Safari. Hands-on fossil hunting with an interpreter, great for school-aged kids.
Fossil Casting. In this tour, kids make their own fossil cast to take home (one of the few dino souvenirs that's actually legal). There’s no cooler souvenir than that.
Centrosaurus Quarry Hike. A 3 km guided hike ending at a real bone bed packed with horned dinosaur remains. Best for older kids with hiking stamina - especially in the hot summer weather of the badlands.
Guided Excavations. Half-day and full-day real digs for older kids and bucket-list parents, uncovering fossils no human has ever seen. Full on and comes with the price tag to match, at $200/person (updated for 2026).
Tours sell out. Bookings open online in advance of the season. Reserve your tour the same day you book your campsite. If you wait until when you arrive, you’re probably not going to get the experience you want.
Drive or bike the Scenic Loop Road. A short loop through the badlands with fossil display shelters along the way — a great option for nap-trapped toddlers or scorching afternoons.
Catch an amphitheatre show. In July and August, the campground amphitheatre runs family programming and evening shows.
Stay up for the stars. With no city lights for miles, the night sky here is genuinely spectacular. Walk just past the edge of the campground lights and look up. it's one of the best free things you'll do all summer. We like to let the kids spend one night staying up really late and hopping in the car to stargaze.
Skip swimming in the creek. Find a better option to swim. The clay is slippery, and children can get stuck. The water is opaque - making it difficult to determine the depth. As parents who have had to scramble more than once to pull a child out of the water, we suggest finding a better place to swim.
Dinosaur Provincial Park Trails to Discover
There are five main self-guided trails, all short and easily do-able with your youngest kids. Here they are from shortest to longest (in addition to wandering the wide-open hoodoo area right beside the campground):
Prairie Trail — 0.3 km Stroller-friendly and easy, this pathway loops through the often-overlooked prairie grassland above the valley, with interpretive signs about how plants and animals survive in this dry, windy home.
Coulee Viewpoint — 0.9 km Easily one of our favourite trails in the whole park. Short enough for the youngest adventurers, with pipes, tunnels, and nooks and crannies to explore — but hold hands near the end, where there are real drop-offs at the viewpoint.
Trail of the Fossil Hunters — 0.9 km This trail leads to a 1913 quarry site and is short enough for young adventurers to finish with pride. Relive the excitement of the early fossil hunters as you follow in their footsteps.
Badlands Trail — 1.3 km The first trail on the scenic loop road, winding past hoodoos, pinnacles, ridges and clay for incredible views. Interpretive signs cover how the badlands formed and the dinosaur bones found in the area.
Cottonwood Flats — 1.4 km A totally different landscape — shady, green, and close to the river. A great bird-watching walk and a welcome break from the sun on hot days.
John Ware Cabin Right in the campground, near the playground, sits the restored last home of John Ware — the legendary Black cowboy whose ranching skill made him one of the most celebrated figures in Alberta history. In summer, interpreters bring the story to life with hands-on activities for kids. Don't skip it.
Want to engage the kids on the trails a little longer? There are some wonderful Geocaches hid within the trails in the park. It’s like a treasure hunt that gives them a reason to keep going. Haven’t tried Geocaching before? You’re in for a treat - Here’s how you can get started.
Hidden Gems In and Around the Park
The Patricia Hotel Steak Pit — cook your own dinner at a 1915 saloon. Fifteen minutes from the park in the tiny town of Patricia, this century-old hotel saloon is a badlands institution. Push through the swinging doors, pick your cut of beef or bison, and grill it yourself over the famous indoor steak pit — the only one of its kind in southeast Alberta — surrounded by taxidermy, cowboy memorabilia, and locals who've been coming for decades. It's the closest meal to the park and the most memorable. Parent note: it's a working saloon, so call ahead about kids and family seating before you go.
Sunset from the hoodoos. Climb one of the accessible hoodoos near the campground (respect the restricted zones) about 30 minutes before sunset. The whole valley turns gold and pink. Easily the best free show in the park.
Paddle the Red Deer River. Bring your own canoe or kayak and float the roughly 13 km stretch from Steveville down to the park campground — about 2.5 to 4 hours depending on water levels, drifting past badlands you can't see any other way. No rentals on site, so this one's for families with their own gear.
Make It a Full Badlands Road Trip: The Saloon at the End of 11 Bridges
Here's the move that turns a camping weekend into the road trip your kids will talk about for years: on your way down from Edmonton (or on the way home), swing through the Drumheller valley: about two hours northwest of Dinosaur Provincial Park, for one of Alberta's strangest and best detours.
The 11 Bridges of Wayne. Just east of Drumheller, turn south off Highway 10 onto Highway 10X and follow a winding 6 km road through a narrow canyon along the Rosebud River - crossing eleven little one-lane, wood-decked bridges along the way. Kids love calling out the count from the back seat, and locals boast it's a world-record concentration of bridges in the shortest distance. Take it slow; the drive is the destination here.
The Last Chance Saloon, Wayne. At the end of the bridges sits a genuine ghost town: Wayne, a coal boomtown of 2,000+ that dwindled to a few dozen residents when the mines closed - and the Last Chance Saloon, open since 1913. Discover cool artifacts like the framed bullet holes above the piano from the days when this place earned the nickname "the Bucket of Blood." Today it's thoroughly family-friendly: house-smoked meat, a kids' menu, a patio, and even a dog menu. The attached Rosedeer Hotel offers themed rooms (and, allegedly, a resident ghost or two) if you want to make a night of it.
While you're on the Drumheller side, the world-class Royal Tyrrell Museum pairs perfectly with the real bone beds at Dinosaur Provincial Park — see the skeletons in the museum, then stand where they were dug up. One important note for planning: Dinosaur Provincial Park is NOT in Drumheller. They're about two hours apart, so give yourself a night (or two) at each end rather than trying to cram both into one day.
Tip: Through September 2026 - Get Free admission to Royal Tyrrell Museum with the Canada Strong Pass
Side Trip: Kinbrook Island Provincial Park
Kinbrook Island Provincial Park is a refreshing dip in the lake, about forty-five minutes from Dinosaur Provincial Park on the shores of enormous Lake Newell. It's the badlands cool-down plan: drive out, swim, and head back to the campground for dinner. The lakeshore is pebbles and crushed shells, so pack water shoes for small feet. If you'd rather camp lakeside, book early - this one fills up fast in peak months. The campground is another family-friendly option, giving a cool reprieve from the Badlands.
Tips for Parents
There is no shade in the badlands. Hats, sunscreen, and more water than you think you need — then double it. Hike early morning or evening in July and August, when the valley regularly bakes past 30°C.
Closed-toe shoes, always. Prickly pear cactus grows everywhere, and it does not care about sandals.
Rattlesnakes live here. Prairie rattlesnakes are shy and bites are rare, but teach kids to stay on trails, look before stepping over rocks, and never reach into crevices. If you hear a rattle, back away calmly.
Bentonite clay is slippery when wet. After rain, the badlands turn to grease. Wait it out or stick to the paved loop.
Hold hands at viewpoints. The Coulee Viewpoint Trail has real drop-offs near the end.
Book everything early. Campsites (90 days out), comfort camping (180 days), and tours all sell out for summer weekends. This is not a wing-it destination in July.
Little guests? Prioritize the Explorer's Bus and Fossil Casting. They're the most toddler-and-preschooler-friendly programs, and two of the park's trails are barrier-free.
Expect minimal cell service. Know where you’re going before the signal runs out.