Dinosaur National Monument has to be one of our all time favorite monuments that we have visited on our journeys. They have so much to offer for any age and any interest.
Quarry Visitor Center
When you arrive at the Quarry Visitor Center, find the Stegasaurus and take a picture before heading inside. When you get inside you need to head to the information desk and talk to one of the rangers. There are a lot of different ways that you can experience this monument. You’ll certainly want to visit the Quarry Exhibit Hall where the “wall of dinosaur bones” is located. The exhibit hall is 1/4 mile from the visitor center. You can get there by riding on the shuttle, taking your own personal vehicle, or hiking up to it. Once you’re there you have the same options for getting back to the visitor center. We chose to ride the shuttle up to the hall and then hike back down to visitor center. After you’ve decided what you’re going to do take a look around the visitor center and, if you have kids, grab a Jr Ranger book. We had plenty of time for the kids to work on their books and look around the visitor center before the shuttle left.
Quarry Exhibit Hall
This beautiful exhibit hall was built over the dinosaur quarry to allow visitors great views of the dinosaur wall. Upon entering, you find yourself towards the middle/top of the dinosaur wall. Walk towards the railing and get a full view of the wall. It took our breath away when we walked in. It’s an amazing site. Continue to walk around and view the exhibits on this level and then make your way down to the lower level.
On the lower level, you’ll find more exhibits and some reconstructed dinosaurs.
Touch Wall
The best part of the lower level is the opportunity to touch real dinosaur fossils. This was our favorite part and the kids loved it!
Hike to Visitor Center
After we saw all the amazing sites in the Quarry Exhibit Hall, we decided to hike the trail back down to the visitor center. You can take the shuttle, but it was a really nice day so we went for it. You can take a ranger guided hike if you want. They actually have at least 14 trails you can go on, but we only had a few hours to explore. Along the trail, we saw some petroglyphs and additional fossils. So many things to see.
When we returned to the visitor center, the kids turned in their junior ranger books and received a badge for all of their hard work. They had to say a pledge to keep the parks safe and keep learning. This is such a fun activity for kids and I would encourage you to do it. They have these programs at most of the places in the National Park System.
We loved Dinosaur National Monument. They have so much more that we didn’t get to do. You can hike, auto tour, river raft, cycle, camp, etc. We will definitely be back to do some more of the wonderful things they have here.
Consider the Wonders is not affiliated with Dinosaur National Monument or National Park System.
Comments are closed