Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre

We did a road trip with the girls to Morden, Manitoba to visit the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre. I didn't even know we had a museum like this so close by! It is so full of history and it's so cool that most of the fossils were found right here in Manitoba! We made a little trip of it and stayed the night in Winkler at the Quality Inn & Suites. It had a beautiful pool area and an Under the Sea themed room! The next morning we drove about 15 minutes to the CFDC to start our tour.

CFDC

The CFDC has the largest collection of marine reptile fossils in Canada! I recommend booking a tour so that someone can walk you through the museum and give you the full experience. You can choose between the Speedy Tour, Basic Tour and VIP Tour. We chose the VIP tour, which also lets you see the collection room and lab! This part was so cool because you can still see the fossils in the paper mache forms that they use to get them out of the ground. You get to see a ton of different fossils, and learn so much about our geological past, like how we used to be completely covered in water! We all learned so much that we didn't know. A highlight is definitely Bruce. Bruce is a Tylosaurus Pembinensis and is the Guinness World Record holder as the largest publicly displayed mosasaur! The girls loved seeing him.

They also have a room where kids can dig for fossils in a sand pit, color, watch a film and play games. They offer Dino Day camps running through July and August as well! This would be such a fun option for your kids in summer to have fun and also learn about our geological history. We ended the tour at the Gift Shop where the girls grabbed some colorful rocks as a memory.

As you exit the Discovery Centre there is also a big kids play area in the building. The girls LOVED this. Allow some time for them to play in there!

Statues

Next up, we drove around the city to see the three huge statues they have around the city. Our first stop was at Bruce the Mosasaur at the Morden sign. It was HUGE and the girls loved climbing on top of him. Next up was a statue of the largest Archelon Turtlle that ever lived. It is 4.5 metres wide! Lastly we stopped at the Xiphactinus prehistoric fish, where you can pose for a photo op inside it's head! The girls loved it. Both the fish and the turtle were sculpted right here in Manitoba! Definitely worth the photo ops.

Dig Site

They still have an active dig site where four geology students are currently digging. We tried to go for a site visit, but the ground was too muddy to drive on from all of the rain. I'm hoping we can see it next time we're in town! They're also working on building a facility to accommodate visitors to the dig site in 2023, so stay tuned for that!

Other Morden Activities

When I asked you guys to guess what we were doing in Morden, a bunch of you guessed other things, and I thought I'd list them here to make a full day out of your trip to Morden! They're either in or around the Morden area. On our way home we stopped at Sly's Drive in for lunch in Carman and it was so good, and they have a mini golf course there too!