TRAVEL

Glacial awareness

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Canyon. But the explorers were wrong - the Badlands turn out to be very good for one thing: dinosaur fossils.

The reason why is that because of a perfect storm of geographical reasons 75 million years ago, the area was ideal for dinosaurs to flourish on what was then a lush coastal plain next to the now-disappeared Bearpaw Sea.

Add that to the minerals from volcanoes further north, ideal for fossilisation, and fast-flowing water, which quickly covered dead dinosaurs in sediment, and it explains the remarkable finds that the area continues to throw up.

Visitors can go on a variety of guided (and some unguided) safaris and hikes and stomps for all ages through the Unesco World Heritage Site and I promise you WILL find dinosaur fossils.

In fact, it is literally impossible not to. There are dinosaur shin bones, there are hip joints, there's fossilised skin, there are teeth from shark-like sea creatures, there are claws from ancient turtles, skeletons from fish, and bones from a duck-billed dino. In places, there are literally hundreds of fossils in just a square metre - and not just fragments but recognisable bones, several feet long.

Visitors have been known to come across new finds in the Badlands. And I have to say I've always fancied being a discoverer and having a prehistoric creature named after me - surely the world is ready for the Danosaurus?

However, I seem to have a remarkable lack of ability at palaeontology. Almost every time I pointed at something and asked our guide what creature it was, the answer was uniformly “That's just a bit of rock!”

Around 90 minutes north of the Badlands is the ultimate dinosaur town, Drumheller. And for the fossil fan the Royal Tyrrell Museum is a must-see.