Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds
Burgess Shale Fossils
Elevation gain
795 m (2,610 ft)
Distance
8 km (5 miles) round trip
Approx. 7 hrs
Difficulty
Hard (due to steepness)
Pricing
100/adult – Ages 19 – 75.
$60/youth – Ages 13 – 18.
$60/child – Ages 6 – 12.
$80/person – For educational or not-for-profit groups on a private trip.
Private group pricing: The price per person including a 10% discount OR $630/group; whichever is greater. Group size is 1 – 12 people. Private tours are available any day of the week during our hiking season with some restrictions. Please contact us via email or phone to book.
All prices are in Canadian dollars (CAD). An additional 5% GST is charged on the sales price.
We can guide a maximum of 12 hikers per guide. We are permitted to guide three groups per day. So, we can guide 36 hikers per day to the Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds.
Site information for the Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds
If you are new to the Burgess Shale and wish to see abundant and obvious Cambrian Trilobite fossils, this is the hike to do. The site is strewn with rock slabs containing appendages of the Cambrian predator Anomalocaris canadensis; Trilobite species: Ogygopsis klotzi, Olenoides serratus and Elrathina Cordillerae; as well as, brachiopods and sponges.
The Mount Stephen Trilobite Beds were discovered in 1886, after railway workers reported finding what they called “stone bugs” in the talus on the slopes of Mount Stephen. Learn about the environment in which these creatures lived and perished and why many of the species that are found here do not occur at the Walcott Quarry site. This is a great hike for kids who will enjoy studying the rocks to find relatively large, easily recognizable fossils. Visit our FAQs page if you are looking for the differences between the two hikes (Stephen and Walcott).
Is this hike right for you?
Please have a look at our Stephen Terrain Gallery to get a sense of how steep and rooty this hike is.
Hikers must be between the ages of 6 and 75. Youth from 6-18 must be accompanied by an adult.
You should not undertake this hike if you have any respiratory, circulatory or joint problems. If unsure, check with your physician.
Parks Canada is responsible for trail maitenance. The trail is not always well-maintained. The trail is very steep and uneven in some sections and becomes slippery in wet weather. Hikers may find the descent is hard on the knees or that uneven surfaces are a test of ankle stability. In the event of injury helicopter rescue is a very likely possibility but not a guarantee, and one must be prepared to hike out with minimal assistance.
The Field town-site (trailhead) is situated at 1,280 meters (4,200 feet) above sea level. At this elevation there is considerably less oxygen than at sea level. If you are used to training at lower elevations the fatigue of climbing and descending will be be noticeable. Although our guides pause for breaks along the way, you will not enjoy the trip unless you are fit and acclimatized to the altitude.
Logistics the morning of the hike
Your invoice or booking receipt indicates the start time of your hike. The hike is typically scheduled for 8:45 am MDT but not always.
We meet in the parking lot of the Yoho National Park Visitor Centre at the time indicated on your invoice or booking receipt.
Please consult the local road conditions at DriveBC and Alberta 511. There may be closures or infrastructure projects that can cause long delays on the highway.
Trilobite, General Information
Trilobites were an exceptionally successful group of organisms. They first appeared in the early Cambrian, about 540-520 million years ago. Their long reign ended when they went extinct in the massive Permian extinction event 252 million years ago. The Permian is notorious as the worst extinction event of all time. Scientist’s estimate that over 90 percent of all marine (ocean) species went extinct. If you are paying attention to the dates you will have noticed that Trilobites were around for over 250 million years! In addition to this longevity they had a hard carapace (dorsal or upper section of their exoskeleton). These two factors, longevity of species and hard parts, increase the likelihood of a species being fossilized. Consequently, there exists good fossil evidence of the ubiquitous creatures. However, relatively few fossil sites have such an abundance of complete specimens, as the Mount Stephen Trilobite beds.
Trilobita is the scientific name for the animal group more commonly known as the Trilobite. They belong to an extinct class of marine (ocean) dwelling arthropods, known as Artiopoda. Please note that the family-tree of arthropods is an ephemeral and contentious subject and that some paleontologists may be using a different family-tree that does not include the Artiopoda class; it is common to see Trilobitomorpha in the family tree instead of Artiopoda .
Arthropod, General Information
Common examples of other groups of extant (not-extinct) arthropods are the Arachnida, which includes spiders; the Insecta, which includes all insects and beetles; and the Crustacea, which include shrimp. You can consider these organisms to be more closely related to a Trilobite, than to you! Another way to say this is that trilobites and insects shared a common ancestor more recently than a trilobite and you. Arthropoda is the most species-rich phylum of animals with up to 80% of all known animal species belonging to the group – some scientists say that beetles account for 25% of all known animal life forms, and the beetle is an arthropod. So, the example of classes that started off this paragraph is but a small sampling of the Arthropoda phylum.
If you’re keen to learn more about trilobites we recommend picking up a copy of Richard Fortey’s Trilobite: Eyewitness to Evolution. Check out the goodreads review here.