Drumheller Hoodoos - Calgary Uncovered:Real Food, Real Culture, Pure Quality

Otherworldly rock formations in the heart of Alberta’s Badlands

📸 PHOTO SPOT

Location: Willow Creek, about 16 km east of Drumheller
Best for: Landscapes • Couples • Portraits • Badlands photography • Instagram
Time needed: 20-30 minutes
Cost: Free
Season: Year-round
PHOTO POTENTIAL ★★★★★

Why it’s worth the stop:

The Drumheller Hoodoos have a bit of a moon-landing feel to them. With the strange sandstone formations, bare Badlands and wide-open sky, you can wander around here and feel like you’ve landed somewhere decidedly not Alberta.

It’s like we were in Mongolia or on another planet.

The Drumheller Hoodoos are one of those places that make you stop the car and go, ‘Well, would you look at that.’

These tall, oddly shaped sandstone formations rise out of the Badlands like a collection of crooked little towers, each one shaped by wind and water over thousands of years. Rolling hills, layers of exposed rock, and enormous skies surround them, making this part of Alberta so distinctive.

And they’re wonderfully easy to explore, with a short trail leading through the formations. You can get right among them, see the layers and textures up close, and look back across the Badlands from the viewing area.

For a photo stop, they tick a lot of boxes: interesting shapes, dramatic scenery, plenty of opportunities to include people for scale, and enough different angles to keep you happily snapping away without spending half the day there.

That’s a pretty good excuse to pull over.

💡 Calgary Uncovered Tip: Don’t photograph only the hoodoos. Photograph the Badlands around them. The formations themselves may be the stars, but those weird little ridges, scraggly bushes, wide-open skies and layers of colour are what make the whole scene feel otherworldly.

📸 How to Get the Shot: The Hoodoos are pretty photogenic from just about anywhere, but let your camera look around and start playing around with your angles.

Get down low and shoot upwards to make the formations feel bigger and more dramatic. Then put someone in the frame — Geoff and I found that having a person wandering among the Hoodoos really shows just how much larger they are than they first appear. Side note: a couple got engaged while we were there. Best spot EVER to pop that question!

Don’t forget to look closely, too. The layers, cracks, and textures in the sandstone make great detail shots, especially when the light hits the formations from the side.

If you can, go in the early morning or late afternoon when the light is softer, and the shadows bring out the texture in the rock. And if you’ve got one of those wonderfully dramatic Alberta skies happening, don’t waste it — give that sky some room in the frame.