Phu Faek Forest Park (Dinosaur Footprints)

Phu Faek Forest Park, at the foot of the Phu Phan mountain range in Kalasin’s Huai Phueng district, preserves dinosaur footprints pressed into sandstone around 140 million years ago. The tracks belong to theropods — two-legged, meat-eating dinosaurs — and were found entirely by chance in November 1996, when two local girls having lunch with their family noticed odd indentations in a rock terrace nearby. Geologists who followed up documented 21 separate footprints; today, about seven remain clearly visible, the rest worn down or buried under sediment over the intervening decades. Entry is free, and the park is open daily from 08:00 to 18:00.

A roughly 2-kilometre trail through mixed deciduous forest leads to viewing platforms over the exposed rock face where the tracks sit. Unlike most fossil sites, where barriers keep visitors at a distance, Phu Faek lets people touch the footprints directly — a rare, tangible connection to a 140-million-year-old trace that most paleontological sites don’t allow. Interpretive signs along the trail explain what’s known about the dinosaurs that made them, and the walk itself passes through forest with a reasonable chance of spotting birds and small reptiles, on top of the geological draw.

Insider Tip: Go in the cool early morning — the viewing platforms and rock terrace sit exposed to full sun by mid-morning, and there’s little shade once you’re off the forest section of the trail.

Wear proper walking shoes rather than sandals; the rock terrace can be uneven and slippery if it’s rained recently. Bring water, since the park has minimal facilities beyond the marked trail. The site sits in Kalasin province — reached via Highway 2042 out of Somdet district, then about 20 kilometres toward Kuchinarai — and pairs naturally with the Sirindhorn Museum in Sahatsakhan, Kalasin’s dedicated dinosaur-fossil museum, for a fuller day on the province’s paleontological history.