Tuesday, November 24, 2015

The Roadside Dinosaurs of Drumheller

Deep beneath the Canadian rock of Drumheller yields fascinating dinosaur fossils. The Royal Tyrrell Museum serves as a testament to that, but the town itself has embraced its love for the long-gone lizards, and so found it fitting to build dinosaur statues that can be discovered all over the town! 


It was a blast searching across the streets for these statues, and its uplifting to see dinosaurs get so much recognition. You're probably going to note that the majority of these statues are outdated, stylized, or both. Hey, we all can't get accuracy.









There were several fossil shops located around the town. The largest of them served also as a museum, but unfortunately I was not able to visit it due to time constraints. Like any dinosaur museum, of course, there were a few dinosaurs that guard the outside. In this case, slightly more realistic than the Drumheller residents, but not something a top institution would boast about. 





Looks like this Triceratops just saw Clash of the Dinosaurs for the first time...


The centerpiece of the town is this T. rex, which claims to be "The World's Largest Dinosaur" (statue). I haven't been around the world enough to check its validity, but it definitely seems like a contender. For a small fee, you can travel to the top of it until you reach the mouth. I did it several years ago. From what I remember the walls are painted with quaint dioramas of the prehistoric era.





Even the front lawns of houses are adorned with dinosaurs!