Paleo Trail BC has launched, bringing more than 150 million years of Fernie and East Kootenay history to life through fossils, geology, trails, exhibits and interactive tours.
We spend a lot of time looking at Fernie’s mountains. Paleo Trail BC gives us a reason to look inside them.
Long before the Rockies existed, this region was covered by ancient seas. Sediment accumulated on the ocean floor, preserving ammonites, ichthyosaurs and other marine life before enormous geological forces eventually folded and lifted those layers into the mountains surrounding us today.
Paleo Trail BC links discoveries and experiences in Fernie, Sparwood, Elko and Cranbrook, using an animated trail map, self-guided tours, exhibits and interpretive material to tell the geological story of the region.
Fernie is particularly important because of the Fernie Formation, sedimentary rock created from ancient seabeds during the Jurassic period approximately 145 to 165 million years ago. Those layers now appear throughout the mountains around the Elk Valley.
Titanites occidentalis
Among Fernie’s best-known discoveries are the giant Titanites occidentalis ammonite and Fernatator prenticei ichthyosaur, both remarkable reminders that the landscape we know today was once a very different place.
The restored Ammonite Trail from the Castle Mountain area now provides access to the approximately 1.4-metre ammonite fossil. The eight-kilometre round trip can be partly ridden or hiked, with the final section hiking only.
Meet the People Behind Paleo Trail BC
The video below is a great place to begin.
It takes us back to the ancient seas that once covered this region, explains how those seabeds became today’s Rocky Mountains and introduces some of the people who helped bring Paleo Trail BC to life.
The interpretive film was developed by Tourism Fernie in collaboration with Dinosaur Valley Studios and TrueArc Media, combining local knowledge, paleontology, animation and storytelling to make the region’s prehistoric history accessible to everyone.
The video is more than an introduction. It forms part of the foundation for the self-guided Paleo Trail experience, encouraging people to get out and visit the fossils, displays and landscapes featured in the story.
A Different Way to Explore Fernie
Paleo Trail BC isn’t another mountain bike trail or hiking route. It is a new way of exploring a landscape we already know.
It connects recreation with natural history and gives residents, families, schools and visitors a better understanding of why these mountains look the way they do — and what was here millions of years before them.
You can follow the interactive map from home, visit exhibits in the communities or head outside and explore the actual landscape.
For Fernie, that adds another layer to an already remarkable mountain story.
Long before skiing, biking, coal mining or even the Rocky Mountains themselves, Fernie was beneath an ancient sea.
Explore the new self-guided tour and animated map at PaleoTrailBC.com.
Editor
