Nova Scotia Comes Alive in 2011!

Joggins Cliffs: A Walk With Dinosaurs

“Joggins Fossil Cliffs are the finest example in the world of a natural exposure in a continuous section ten miles long, occurs in the sea cliffs bordering a branch of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia.”

Sir Charles Lyell: Principles of Geology: 1829

I am a big fan of the Tyrrell Museum of Palentology in Drumheller, Alberta and spent a great day there a few years ago. I especially liked “Dinosaur Hill” where the standing remains of 40 dinosaurs can be studied.

Less than two hours away from Halifax is the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, a fabulous display of Coal Age history that has been eroded down by wave action so that the fossilized remains of dinosaurs, fossilized trees and dinosaur footprints from 310 million years ago. So, you can litterally walk in the footsteps of the ancient creatures.

On July 7, 2008 the joggins cliffs made the World Heritage Site list after the opening of the $9 million interpretive center.  It is one of only 15 sites in Canada. Dubbed the “Coal Age Galapagos” it is the richest find of Coal Age fossils. There are twenty-foot high fossilized tress in the cliffs, trilobites, fish, dragonflies. It was so famous in the 18oo’s that it made mention in Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species.

The actual fossil cliffs stretch for almost 10 miles along Fundy’s Chignecto Bay in Northwest Nova Scotia. The Bay of Fundy has the world’s greatest tides which worked away at the shore and exposing more fossils of the Carboniferous, or Coal Age, Period. For years before the UNESCO designation the cliffs have been under the protection os the Province of Nova Scotia’s Special Places Protection Act.

Visits are best at low tide because you can see more. If the tide is high start at the interpretive center and when the tide lowers you will have a better understanding of the area and its history.Better yet, take a guided tour. It’s not much and you get way more out of the experience.

The Joggins Fossil Centre can be reached at 1-902-251-2727.  Joggins is near Amherst, which is two-hour drive from Halifax or a one-hour trip from Moncton, New Brunswick.