Oil Sands

In Dinosaur Provincial Park , near Brooks, there is a very special place called Valley of the Moon. It is one of those spots that has a certain energy that nobody can describe but everyone feels. Because of its stark beauty, it is of special interest to photographers, and, believe it or not, astronauts.

As a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Dinosaur Provincial Park is best known for its abundance of…you guessed it…dinosaur bones. Indeed, it remains a favourite field site for palaeontologists from the Royal Tyrrell Museum and the University of Alberta, to name just a few. Valley of the Moon, unlike most other parts of the park, has very few fossils. Also, unlike much of the park, it is relatively flat. Flat enough to make one wonder why the word “valley” is part of its name at all; it would more accurately be described as a small mesa…however, the reason for the word “moon” in its name is obvious.

As an employee of the provincial park, it has been my privilege to guide a wide variety of special guests to this location. Visiting media go wild over this alien landscape and I often have to drag photographers away. The most interesting VIPs that I have taken there were a group of experts from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

Robotic rovers which assist in exploring planets like Mars are tested extensively before they are sent into space. The CSA and NASA are forever on the look-out for landscapes on Earth that are analogous to those found on other planets, so they can test these rovers in the unpredictability of a real landscape. The Polar Regions are excellent for this, but incredibly expensive to operate in. This summer, the CSA visited Dinosaur Provincial Park, as one of many new possible testing sites, and identified the Valley of the Moon as having real potential. We may not know for quite a while if Dinosaur Provincial Park will qualify as a “Mars analogue”, but are extremely excited at the prospect. Dinosaurs, robots, and space exploration!

As Valley of the Moon is located in the park’s natural preserve it is only accessible when accompanied by a Park guide and prior to this summer we have not led regular programs there. That has recently changed with the addition of new program designed for amateur photographers, called the Sunset Tour. This popular program brings a small number of adults to this and other special locations with the express purpose of capturing the beauty of the landscape in the golden evening light. Our own provincial park videographer, John Novotny maintains this is one of his favourite places to shoot. This video above is a sample of his amazing work.

So if you are starting to discover your talents as an amateur photographer, we encourage you to visit the Valley of the Moon. You won’t be disappointed. It’s the closest most of us will get to walking on another planet.

-Brad Tucker, Tourism, Parks and Recreation, Dinosaur Provincial Park