Southern Alberta is home to one of the world’s highest concentrations of UNESCO World Heritage sites. This road trip connects four distinct landscapes: the fossil-rich Badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, the sacred rock art of Writing-on-Stone, the ancient hunting grounds of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, and the dramatic peaks of Waterton Lakes National Park, where the prairies meet the mountains.
Our detailed road trip guide will help you plan your epic Southern Alberta road trip.
Table of Contents
7-Day Road Trip Itinerary
This itinerary highlights natural and cultural sites in southern Alberta. As planned, this self-drive road trip is about 1200 kilometres long with no day involving more than 300 kilometres of driving.
- Day 1. Drumheller
- Day 2. Dinosaur Provincial Park
- Day 3. Writing-On-Stone Provincial Park
- Day 4. Lethbridge
- Day 5. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
- Day 6. Waterton Lakes National Park
- Day 7. Frank Slide and the Crowsnest Pass
If your time permits, we recommend spending more than just one day in Drumheller, Dinosaur Provincial Park and Waterton Lakes National Park to fully appreciate these beautiful places.
Road Trip Map of Southern Alberta
Things To Do in Drumheller
Drumheller is often referred to as the Dinosaur Capital of the World, due to the many dinosaur fossils found in the area’s sedimentary rocks. These rocks are part of the Badlands, an arid region with highly eroded, sedimentary rocks and clay soils. The landscape is very picturesque with steep-sloped ravines, hoodoos and minimal vegetation. The Canadian Badlands, one of Alberta’s best known natural landscapes, stretch from Drumheller, east to Saskatchewan and south to the US border.
This small town, located in the Badlands, has many interesting things to do.
Horseshoe Canyon Viewpoint, 15 kilometres west of town on Highway 9, is a great place to see the Badlands. A hiking trail winds down into the canyon.
Visit the World’s Largest Dinosaur, nicknamed “Tyra”, to get a bird’s eye view of the area. Tyra is 26 metres tall, offering a very unique viewpoint. Climb the 106 steps on the inside of this steel and fiberglass structure. The stairs end at the viewing platform inside Tyra’s mouth. From here the view of the Drumheller’s Red Deer River valley is impressive.
The Drumheller Visitor Information Centre is at Tyra’s base. Drumheller’s famous dinosaur museum is across the river and 6 kilometres northwest of Drumheller on Highway 838 in Midland Provincial Park.
The Royal Tyrrell Museum is one of the best paleontology centres in the world and the only one in Canada. Its Dinosaur Hall has one of the world’s largest displays of full dinosaur skeletons. Additional museum galleries showcase more fossil remains and interactive displays which provide details about the age of the dinosaurs. To learn about the current exhibitions and to purchase your timed-entry ticket, visit the Royal Tyrrell’s website.
After learning about the dinosaurs, their fossil remains and the rocks in which they were found, head behind the museum to the trailhead of the Badlands Interpretive Trail. This easy 1.4 kilometre loop is a great introduction to the Badlands.
For stunning views of the Badlands, the 48-kilometre Dinosaur Trail Scenic Drive is highly recommended.
The Little Church, a long-standing landmark in Drumheller, is about a kilometre west of the museum, on Highway 838. Originally built in 1958, this little church is always open to the public and free to enter for worship and contemplation.
Continuing on Highway 838, Horesethief Canyon has a great viewpoint and walking trails.
If you are looking for something a bit more active, consider visiting Barney’s Adventure Park also on Highway 838. Enjoy Barneys Barnyard, Boomtown, and Boneyard activities on 15 acres. It’s fun for all ages and open every day during July and August and weekends in June, September and October.
To complete the loop back to Drumheller, Highway 838 crosses the Red Deer River on the Bleriot Ferry. This location has been a ferry crossing for over 100 years.
Highway 838 ends at Highway 837. Turn left. The impressive Orkney Viewpoint, with benches to relax on, is nearby. Return to town, on Highways 837 and 575.
The Last Chance Saloon is in the small town of Wayne, just southeast of Drumheller. This vintage saloon is full of antiques from the coal mining era. It’s both a museum and pub, all in one. There is also a hotel and campground associated with the saloon. Grab a burger at the saloon then continue the road trip toward Dinosaur Provincial Park.
If time permits, we recommend spending a second day in Drumheller, to explore the area’s coal mining history.
Start at the trailhead for the Hoodoos Trail, located on Highway 10, 16 kilometres south of downtown. Hoodoos are columns of weathered sandstone with rock caps. This trail has many great examples.
Travel south on Highway 10 for 7 kilometres to the valley’s last operating coal mine.
The Atlas Coal Mine, one of the valley’s 139 mines, operated from 1936 to 1984. This National Historic Site is the location of Canada’s last wooden tipple, a structure used to load the coal into railroad hopper cars. Tours take visitors up 38 metres up into this former coal processing plant. Tour the underground mine on a 75-minute, guided tour. Back on the surface, ride the train pulled by a 90+-year-old locomotive and enjoy fascinating stories about the coal mining era. Admission tickets are required in addition to tours tickets. Pre-booking is essential as tours fill up fast!
Nearby, stroll the hallways and classrooms at the East Coulee School Museum, a restored schoolhouse. Exhibits showcase more about coal mining in the area.
Dinosaur Provincial Park
The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Some of the most important fossil discoveries have been found here. UNESCO highlights that the area has an “exceptional abundance and diversity of dinosaur and other vertebrate fossils”. Palaeontologists have found fossils of over 49 different species of dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous period (100 to 66 million years ago) in the park. The Dinosaur Extinction occurred 66 million years ago.
Both guided and self-guided options are available to tour the park. They explore different parts of the park.
1. A Guided Tour
A large part of the park is a protected natural preserve with restricted access. The only way to see the restricted regions is on a guided tour. Visit Dinosaur Provincial Park’s Tours and Events webpage to make reservations for one of the guided hikes. The Explorer’s Bus Tour is an option if hiking is not practical. Ride into this stunning environment on this guided tour. Visitors leave the bus at various stops where guides show and explain interesting fossils and geologic formations.
2. Self-Guided Hiking
To hike the park, choose from the park’s self-guided interpretive trails. All trails are under 2 kilometres in length and most are suitable for all users. Hikers must stay on designated trails to avoid harming the protected area.
All visitors MUST leave any fossil material where it is found so take lots of pictures to remember your finds.
While our road trip suggests one day for Dinosaur Provincial Park, we recommend 2 Days to properly see everything the park has to offer. Camping is available on site at the Dinosaur Park Campground. There are several hotels in the town of Brooks, forty-eight kilometres south of the park. Spend the night and then drive south to the Milk River Valley.
Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park
The park has the most significant collection of First Nations Rock Art in the Great Plains of North America. Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park is recognized by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site for its immense cultural and spiritual significance.
The park’s sandstone cliffs have petroglyphs (carvings) and pictographs (paintings) that are believed to be more than 3500 years old.
Writing-on-Stone/ Áísínai’pi is a sacred place with special spiritual significance for the Blackfoot people. Áísínai’pi is the Blackfoot name for the area, which means “it is written” or “it is pictured” in the Blackfoot language. The Blackfoot have a long presence in the Milk River Valley.
The engravings and paintings on the sandstone walls depict Blackfoot life, including daily routines and spiritual practices. Today, Blackfoot descendants continue to practice ceremonial activities at Áísínai’pi.
The park has more than 50 rock art sites. The most sensitive sites are in the Archaeological Preserve. To see these sites, a Writing-on-Stone Guided Tour must be taken.
Writing-on-Stone also has 3 self-guided hiking trails. On these trails, hike through the mushroom-shaped, sandstone hoodoos to discover more rock art. Hike to the cliff tops for great viewpoints of the river valley below.
Stay overnight at the Writing on Stone Campground, located in the park. Lethbridge is about an hour to the northwest.
Lethbridge
Two places are “must-do’s on a visit to this beautiful prairie city, on the banks of the Oldman River.
Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden
At the Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden, experience a place of tranquility and harmony. The garden was created to celebrate the Lethbridge citizens of Japanese ancestry and the friendship between Canada and Japan. It was designed with elements that represent the local mountains and the prairies. Take part in a traditional tea ceremony, an age-old ritual. Stroll among the flowing water, bridges and ponds of these beautiful gardens.
The High Level Bridge area
The High Level Bridge is the world’s highest, 96 metres, and longest, 1.6 kilometres, steel trestle bridge. The 1909 rail bridge provided a reliable route for trains carrying coal from the nearby mines to market.
Today, visitors hike the nature trails in the valley below the bridge. Families can also enjoy the nearby Fort Whoop-Up, a reconstruction of a late 19th century trading post.
For more details, check out our full Lethbridge itinerary.
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is less than an hour east of Lethbridge.
Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump
Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is one of the world’s oldest and best-preserved communal hunting sites. For nearly 6,000 years, Indigenous Plains peoples, specifically the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot), used their sophisticated knowledge of topography and bison behaviour to stampede herds over these sandstone cliffs.
The award-winning multi-level Interpretive Centre is uniquely built directly into the cliffside. The museum’s exhibits guide visitors through the ecology, mythology, and technology of the buffalo hunt. Start your visit in the theatre to watch the film which illustrates how the hunt was conducted, then head to the upper exit to walk the upper cliff-top trail. This trail offers a clear view of the “drive lanes”, lines of stone cairns used to funnel the bison toward and over the cliff edge.
A lower trail leads to the base of the cliff, where the bison died and the community gathered to process the meat and animal skins. Archaeological excavations have revealed deep bone beds here.
For more details on this incredible place, check out our full article about Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.
An hour to the southwest is a Canadian National Park and the world’s first International Peace Park.
Waterton Lakes National Park
Waterton Lakes is a beautiful park located on the Alberta/Montana border. It is part of the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with its USA neighbour to the south Glacier National Park.
Waterton has a number of excellent hiking opportunities. The 17-kilometre Crypt Lake Trail is one of the park’s most highly rated trails. Hike through a mountain forest, past waterfalls and up steep slopes on this strenuous, 6-hour trek. Spectacular views of Crypt Lake reward hikers at the end of the climb.
Enjoy the shops and restaurants in the lovely town of Waterton.
Be sure to take the boat cruise on Upper Waterton Lake aboard the MV International. This boat has been in service since 1927, travelling south across the USA/Canada International Border, to Goat Haunt Ranger Station, a part of the USA Glacier National Park.
Back in Waterton, don’t miss visiting the iconic Prince of Wales Hotel. Built in 1927, the hotel has served afternoon tea and top quality meals ever since. Those lucky enough to stay in this seven-storey hotel, will be rewarded with gorgeous views to the south overlooking Upper Waterton Lake.
For more details about this amazing park, check out our article, 3 Days in Waterton Lakes National Park.
Leave the park driving north and make a western detour on Highway 3, the Crowsnest Highway.
Crowsnest Pass
The area is known as the Crowsnest Pass. The first trains came through in 1898, opening up the area to development. Many coal mines opened between 1900 and 1919. Unfortunately, a few tragic incidents were associated with the mining operations.
Canada’s deadliest rockslide, the Frank Slide, occurred in April 1903. One hundred ten million metric tonnes of limestone slid down the north slope of Turtle Mountain partially burying the mining town of Frank. More that 90 people were killed. The Frank Slide Interpretive Centre tells the story of the slide with interactive exhibits and a film presentation.
In 1914, a massive explosion killed 189 out of 228 miners. The Hillcrest mine disaster was Canada’s worst coal mine disaster. The miners were buried locally in 2 mass graves. See the memorial to the 189 miners at the Hillcrest Mine Disaster Cemetery.
Over time coal use decreased as the use of diesel fuel and diesel engines increased. There are no longer any operating coal mines in the Crowsnest Pass.
Turn around and drive east, making a stop at Lundbreck Falls. Enjoy the view of this beautiful 12-metre waterfall from the observation deck.
After a peaceful break, drive Highway 22 north, back to Calgary.
Explore All of our Alberta Travel Guides
Discover our complete series of detailed Alberta guides to help you plan your perfect road trip from the Rockies to the prairies.
Main Article: Alberta Road Trips
Part 1: Edmonton – Alberta’s capital, river valley trails, and museums
Part 2: Banff to Jasper Road Trip – Rocky Mountain peaks, Icefields Parkway, turquoise lakes
Part 3: Plain of Six Glaciers Hike – Glacier viewpoint hike from Lake Louise to the teahouses
Part 4: Southern Alberta Road Trip – Prairie badlands to the foothills of the Rockies (You’re reading this guide now!)
Part 5: Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump – UNESCO site of Indigenous bison hunts
Part 6: Waterton Lakes National Park – Border wilderness, lake cruise and the Prince of Wales Hotel
Part 7: Lethbridge – High Level Bridge and a Japanese garden
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