Step into dinosaur tracks in Grande Cache, from virtual reality to real world

Posted: Thu. Jun. 27/24

Grande Cache, AB - Dustin Wickberg has a wide smile on his face as he surveys a landscape of green hills, stark grey peaks and the ultimate find—dinosaur tracks—here in Grande Cache, Alberta. All this, and he has yet to step foot beyond the Grande Cache Tourism and Interpretive Centre.

How is this possible, you wonder? Dustin has stepped into virtual reality to explore one of the most significant dinosaur track sites in the world, discovered in the Grande Cache area and re-created digitally for the amateur dino hunters who come to the visitor centre as part of a #dinotrail road trip.

WATCH > step into dino tracks in Grande Cache

As he steps out of the virtual reality booth, he and his family compare notes.

“It made me feel like a…” 10 year-old Chelsey pauses to ask her mom Cory the word she’s looking for.

“Oh yeah, like a paleontologist!” she exclaims.

It’s a pretty accurate description. This isn’t a Jurassic Park theme ride. When you step into the 5x8-foot booth, don the VR headset and take the handheld controllers, you’re walking onto a live dig site as it would operate today.

Cory Wickberg tries out the virtual reality experience at the Grande Cache Visitor Centre.

The experience was designed in collaboration with scientists at the Lethbridge College Spatial Technologies Applied Research and Training Initiative, who used a process called photogrammetry to capture the 3D layout of the former Smoky River Coal Mine site. (The site itself includes a sheer cliff face, and is on privately leased land, making it inaccessible for general public.)

Once in VR, you’re given instructions on how to explore the site and join the dig, packing equipment and tools to participate in the dig as if you’re part of the scientific team, before embarking on the dig itself.

Chelsey’s older brother Kyle, 12, is puzzled about why spray paint is part of the kit, until the family works out that it must be used to mark the large dino tracks that the researchers find.

Armed with some new knowledge and a taste for the hunt, the Wickberg family step from the virtual world into the real one to continue their adventure. Along a corridor next to the virtual reality room is a large plaster cast of some of the 10,000-plus tracks found at the dig site, as well as fossils, concretions, rock samples and photos taken at the site.

Photo: Jeremy Derksen

Geological samples and casts of dinosaur tracks are on display at the centre, connecting the virtual to the real world experience.

Combined, the virtual reality experience and the displays instill a deeper appreciation for the rich geological history of the area. While humans have made their mark here, this is a region that has remained largely untouched over the eons, and beyond the doors of the visitor centre spans a whole world of adventures.

From here, the Wickbergs step into this evolving landscape to experience the world once inhabited by those giant, mysterious beings. But first, a picnic at Labyrinth Park, which offers contemplative exploration via a rock labyrinth and mountain vistas.

Photo: Jeremy Derksen

Labyrinth Park, with its large rock labyrinth and wide mountain views, is a great spot for a picnic.

With 21 peaks ranging the town, as well as rivers, lakes and trails in all directions, Grande Cache is full of possibility.

Among the primary forces that shaped the region over time, is of course, water. And in spring and early summer, it can be found in abundance in flowing rivers and waterfalls. Riverbeds are also one of the best places to search for evidence of dinosaurs.

Photo: Jeremy Derksen

Exploring near Muskeg Falls, just 15 minutes drive southeast of Grande Cache.

At Muskeg Falls the family finds striations in the rock of the canyon marking past eras in time. Below their feet the whorls in the rock suggest another effect of deep time.

Sulphur Gates Provincial Park is their next stop. Today’s hike up to Eaton Falls is a beginner-intermediate trek up an old forestry road, a 7.5km round trip with 300 metres of elevation gain and a spectacular payoff at the top.

Especially during spring runoff in May through early July, Eaton Falls is breathtaking. Surging water rushes through a narrow slot canyon, falling several stories into a pool below before spilling into the creek.

Photo: Jeremy Derksen

The hike in to Eaton Falls, one of the largest in the region.

In total, the hike takes the family 2 - 3 hours, with time to enjoy a snack and poke around at the base of the falls, cross the stream and soak in the natural calm, before heading back.

For the Wickbergs, it makes for an easy weekend getaway from Grande Prairie just two hours’ north (or 4.5 hours from Edmonton). True to its name, Grande Cache is a place full of majestic treasures just beyond the beaten path, making it an essential place to embark on #dinotrail adventures.