The Facility
inside and out

The main entry building, located at the top of the valley, will provide easy access by motor coaches and Recreational Vehicles. Visitors will enter the facility into a lobby reception area where orientation and admission sales will be available, with access to washrooms, a food service area, theatre, meeting rooms, the gift shop, as well as into the interpretive facility itself.

Once the visitor enters the main facility, they will pass through a Flood Hall that begins to prepare them to go back in time 73 million years. They will experience a sense of flood water rising and a journey toward the light at the end.

Visitors will then exit the building and proceed to the Time Stair that will provide a physical movement down the valley slope, helping to demonstrate going back 73 million years in time. A stairway leading down the hill will provide interpretive displays at various stops along the way. Each display will address different geologic periods/epochs/ages represented in Alberta, as well as the mystery of the geologic time that isn't represented because of erosion or lack of deposition. Themes such as types of vegetation and other living creatures that existed during each age will be represented in the displays.

The stairway will lead from the orientation at the top to the bonebed at the bottom of the hill where visitors will be able to see and experience the dig and activities there. For those individuals who are unable to descend the stairs, an incline elevator that will accommodate wheelchairs will descend from the upper entry building along the slope to the bonebed at the base of the hill. This elevator will descend at a slow rate, and a recorded commentary that describes the transition back through time will be provided. The incline elevator will also provide a return option for ascent of the hill, with a different recorded message to provide a linkage from the bonebed back to present day and the additional interpretive themes in the Upper Entry building.

Would you like a virtual tour of the facility?