This morning we fly to the City of Calgary the gateway to Canada’s Wild West. After checking in to your downtown hotel take a little time to explore your surroundings before joining your Tour Director and fellow travellers at a welcome dinner.

Today’s dinner is included

After breakfast, we depart Calgary and travel to the heart of the Badlands – the Drumheller Valley. At the Royal Tyrrell Museum you will wander back in time and marvel at the abundance of fossils, skeletons and dinosaurs expertly restored. Stand in awe beneath a gigantic baby T-rex and watch paleontologists at work. This afternoon visit the Atlas Coal mine to hear authentic tales of mines and miners who came seeking their fortune. Go behind the scenes to understand why young children had the worst job as “bone pickers” and learn how coal was processed at this preserved one of a kind mine.   

Today’s breakfast and dinner are included

Today we continue to Dinosaur Provincial Park, one of three UNESCO World Heritage Sites you will visit. Here the plains drop away to reveal a surreal landscape of canyons, buttes, and hoodoos carved from clay, siltstone and shale. The property is unmatched in terms of the number and variety of high-quality specimens which, to date represent more than 44 species, 34 genera and 10 families of dinosaurs, dating back 75-77 million years. Watch for mule, white-tailed deer and cottontail rabbits and look towards the rolling prairie for pronghorn antelope. This afternoon arrive in Medicine Hat and visit a natural forest within a city - Police Point Nature sanctuary where you can meander through the park amongst the cottonwoods and see prairie flowers on a path that leads to the South Saskatchewan River.    Today’s breakfast and dinner are included 

This morning we venture out to Red Rock Coulee - an isolated geological phenomenon where massive round rusty-red boulders lay scattered across the landscape. Standing more than 2.5m high, these formations date back millions of years. How they were formed and how they came to be scattered about add to the mystery and intrigue of this site. Later, discover why Medicine Hat’s clay provided a natural advantage for the development of clay products progressively developing since the first brickyard appeared in 1886. Walk the same floors as past factory workers at the industrial museum and art gallery in the Medalta Historic Clay District. This evening is free for you to explore on your own or perhaps do some shopping at Southern Alberta’s largest shopping centre. 

Today’s breakfast is included 

This morning be ready to be immersed in fascinating history at the Writing on Stone Provincial Park with its hoodoos and coulees on the Milk River. The area is considered sacred and known to the Blackfoot as Áísínai'pi meaning, "It is pictured, it is written". Some of the petroglyphs date back to over 2000 years. The park is another World Heritage Site. Next, we are off to Fort Whoop-Up. The Fort will regale you with colourful accounts of the good, the bad and the ugly of the Wild West. Later we check in to our hotel in Lethbridge.  Today’s breakfast and dinner are included 

This morning you’ll see first-hand the efforts to conserve grazing land while maintaining wildlife habitat when you take a stroll across the grasslands with ranchers and park managers. Learn how these ranchers co-exist with grizzly bears and wolves as you visit a working ranch and learn about what it takes to maintain it. This afternoon we leave the prairies behind and enter the mountainous terrain of Waterton National Park. Cruise down the Upper Waterton Lake on the historic M.V. International past towering mountains of incredible grandeur. At the far end of the lake, you’ll enjoy a brief stop at Goat Haunt in Glacier National Park.  Later, check into the historic Prince of Wales Hotel – a grand survivor from the golden age of railway resort development in Canada. Constructed in 1927, its soaring gables and balconies convey the appearance of a giant chalet perched on a high bluff. This evening dine in style with magnificent views of Waterton Lake. 

Today’s breakfast and dinner are included 

This morning you will see and hear what happened the night Turtle Mountain fell during a visit to the Frank Slide Interpretive Centre that overlooks Canada's deadliest rockslide. From a sobering site, we travel a short distance to visit Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site - one of the oldest, largest, and best-preserved buffalo jumps in North America. Here, over 6,000 years of Plains Buffalo culture are on display. Continue to the historic town of Pincher Creek. 

Today’s breakfast is included 

After breakfast, visit the Kootenai Brown Pioneer Village. Walk into any of the historic buildings furnished with period furniture to view the artifacts and tools used by inhabitants at the time or opt to take a pleasant walk at your pace through the beautiful gardens. This afternoon, you will be introduced to the Oldman River and its vast watershed which drains much of the territory you just traveled through. The river is named after Napi – the Old Man, who the Blackfoot believed is the creator of the Earth and all its living inhabitants. While standing on the dam and listening to a representative of the Oldman Watershed Council, you will better understand the importance of this river to the region’s ecological, social and economic well-being. This evening join your fellow travellers for a delicious farewell dinner. Yee-haw!

Today’s breakfast and dinner are included

Leaving Pincher Creek, we travel to Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park – a site of national and international historical and archaeological significance. This is where the Blackfoot Confederacy signed Treaty 7 with the British government. To commemorate this historic treaty, the Blackfoot Nation has created a world-class tourist destination designed to engage visitors in authentic cultural experiences. This afternoon we board our flight home with a new understanding and your own story to tell of Canada’s Badlands.  

Today’s breakfast and lunch are included