Parks Canada
Watch and Listen
Check out these video clips and podcasts about the Burgess Shale and Yoho National Park.
Take a virtual hike
Do you want to see what Parks Canada's guided hikes are like? Are you planning to hike to one of the Burgess Shale locations in Yoho National Park? Whether you are planning a visit or want to make a virtual visit right now, the video below provides an overview of a Parks Canada-led hike to Walcott Quarry with a park interpreter.
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Check out a 360° panoramic photo
Congratulations! You have successfully made the hike to the Walcott Quarry with your Parks Canada guide and this is the stunning view that greets you. As you stand on this ancient seabed in the sky, you can see Emerald Lake to the right and Mount Burgess to the left.
Facing the quarry wall, where tens of thousands of specimens have been found, your guide has opened the fossil cabinet and has given you the opportunity to hold some of the rarer and best preserved animal fossils in the world. Nearby, your hiking companions are making their own discoveries.
Burgess shale Panoramic photo
Podcasts
These podcasts, produced by Parks Canada for the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Burgess Shale, explore the history, meaning and significance of the Burgess Shale. Use them to learn more about this remarkable fossil find or to prepare for your trip to Yoho National Park.
Burgess Shale: Introduction
Many ancient cultures extolled the virtues of teaching and learning in settings of compelling natural beauty. Imagine experiencing just such a setting high in the mountains with a vista of glaciers, lakes and mighty peaks, and, at the same time, imagine standing upon the threshold of a place that unlocks the secrets of 500,000,000 years of earth's history. This is the Burgess Shale.
Burgess Shale: Significance
The significance lies in the fact that the deposit provides an exceptional understanding of a particular aspect of the history of life.
Burgess Shale: Meaning
In 1975, with exclusive area expeditions permitted to the Royal Ontario Museum, study of the Burgess Shale was launched the modern era.
Burgess Shale: History
Drawn from, in part, man's persistent will to know who he is and whence he and his world emerges comes a statement: “It was inevitable that the Burgess Shale was going to be noticed sooner or later and its fossil treasures revealed to science.”
