Home Destinations Dinosaur National Monument with Kids: Tips from Our Jurassic Pilgrimage

Dinosaur National Monument with Kids: Tips from Our Jurassic Pilgrimage

by Shelly Rivoli
Junior paleontologist with Jr. Ranger badge from Dinosaur National Monument

JENSEN, UTAH: Dinosaur National Monument with Kids – You can talk about dinosaurs, digs, and paleontology until the Camarasaurus come home, but mere conversations will never compare with the experience of visiting Dinosaur National Monument with your children.

Outside the Quarry Visitor Center at Dinosaur National Monument.
Nearly 2,000 miles into our family road trip, it’s at long last time to visit Dinosaur National Monument.

The first thing you should know if want to visit Dinosaur National Monument on your family road trip is this: your GPS will not lead you to the fossils (nor will Google maps for that matter). With Dinosaur National Monument’s 210,000 acres spanning dramatic scenery and notable historic sites across both Colorado and Utah, the only place you’ll be able to see—and get your hands on—actual dinosaur fossils is at the Dinosaur Quarry Exhibit Hall. The hall is located on the Utah side, near the small city of Jensen (click here to see the correct location of the Dinosaur Quarry Visitors Center and Exhibit Hall on my custom Google map).

Child with Junior Ranger booklets at Quarry Visitor Centerat Dinosaur National Monument.
Getting started: With Junior Ranger booklets in hand, the kids scour the Quarry Visitor Center for clues and answers to questions they must answer to earn badges at Dinosaur National Monument.

The second thing you should know is that your visit to the Quarry Exhibit Hall will actually begin at the Quarry Visitor Center, whether you arrive in the summer (late May through early September) when you will take the shuttle bus departing every 15 minutes to visit the exhibit, or during other the other months of the year when you will drive your own vehicle in a ranger-led caravan to the second building. (See details of visitor hours at https://www.nps.gov/dino/planyourvisit/hours.htm.)

overview exhibit of how and where the Morrison Formation and Dinosaur Quarry fossils fit in to geologic timeline
Getting an overview of how and where the Morrison Formation and Dinosaur Quarry fossils fit in to geologic timeline.

Don’t be discouraged. There is plenty to see, learn, and absorb at the Visitor Center before embarking on the journey to the Quarry Exhibit Hall, and if your children hope to earn their “Junior Paleontologist” badges on this visit (part of the National Parks Junior Rangers program), they’ll have important work to do here.

 historical photos of the hard work that began at Dinosaur National Monument in the early 1900s.
To see historical photos such as this gives you an even greater appreciation of the hard work that began here more than a century ago (yes, that’s a fossilized femur section riding delicately on a skid).

The Quarry Visitor Center will help prepare you for what you’ll see at the Quarry Exhibit Hall. And it will also give you a good overview of the history of this area.

Here, you’ll find out more about the geologic forces at work (no those are not the bony plates of Stegosaurus protruding from the hillsides as they appear to be to the untrained eye).

Also, you’ll learn about the earliest human inhabitants whose petroglyphs can still be seen within the park. Not to mention the Spanish settlers arriving here in the 1700s — and later homesteaders and outlaws who called the present-day parkland home.

Shuttle at the Carnegie Quarry Exhibit Hall on our visit to Dinosaur National Monument.
Arriving by shuttle at the Carnegie Quarry Exhibit Hall on our visit to Dinosaur National Monument.
Quarry Hall at Dinosaur National Monument
In 1923, Earl Douglass wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institute saying, “I hope that the Government, for the benefit of science and the people, will uncover a large area, leave the bones and skeletons in relief, and house them in. It would make one of the most astounding and instructive sights imaginable.”

As you arrive at the  Quarry Exhibit Hall, take note of the timeline markers you will pass on your way to the entrance, beginning with the brown marker on the left, labeled “1909”–the year that the first fossils were uncovered at this site by paleontologist Earl Douglass.

Each is spaced appropriately to give you the sense of just how far back in time you are traveling to reach the era when these warm-blooded reptiles ruled.

Historical timeline markers at Dinosaur National Monument with kids
Walking along the historical timeline markers helps visitors of all ages get a feel for the passage of time.

Notice that the first four markers, which fit on the same sign, only date back 50,000 years, to when there is the first evidence of bighorn sheep in the area.

With every 3 feet of sidewalk you travel equal to 15 million years, you are about to travel back farther than some imaginations can reach. 

Once inside the two-story Quarry Exhibit Hall, you imagination will be stretched further, as you try to make literally heads or tails of some 1500 dinosaur bones exposed in the wall before you.

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Fortunately, there are interactive displays to help you locate and identify many of the significant fossils before you, which include fossilized bones from Allosaurus, Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus, Diplodicus, and Stegosaurus.

Using the interactive "fossil finder" to help identify fossils at Dinosaur National Monument.
Using an interactive “fossil finder” to help identify the fossils still embedded at Dinosaur National Monument.

The quarry is thought to be so ridiculously dense with fossils for two reasons. First, a severe and prolonged drought caused many dinosaurs in the region to drop like flies. Second, when the rains finally came, they made El Niño look like child’s play, sweeping over the land and carrying the many late Jurassic dinosaur bones and bodies to where they collected en masse in a riverbed here and remained as the flood waters receded.

A mural behind this skeleton shows what paleontologists believed it looked like "in the flesh," as a park ranger standing nearby explains why.
A mural behind this skeleton shows what paleontologists believed it looked like “in the flesh,” as a park ranger standing nearby explains why.

When you finally make way to the lower level of the Quarry Exhibit Hall, you’ll find more displays to help bring the late Jurassic era to life for you and your young visitors.

Not only are the questions of “Why do we presume the dinosaurs looked as they did?” and “How do we know when they lived?” addressed here, but the other non-dinosaur inhabitants of the era, the early small mammals, are represented as well.

Close-up view of the skull of an Allosaurus retrieved from the quarry at Dinosaur National Monument.
Visitors get a close-up view of the skull of an Allosaurus retrieved from the quarry.

While finding, identifying, and marveling over the many fossils of the Carnegie Quarry Exhibit Hall is an experience not soon to be forgotten, there is one opportunity here that clearly outshines all the rest for most visitors: the chance to touch real 149 million-year-old dinosaur fossils.

Touching a real dinosaur fossil still embedded in the wall at the Carnegie Quarry Exhibit Hall at Dinosaur National Monument
Touching a real dinosaur fossil still embedded in the wall at the Carnegie Quarry Exhibit Hall. Dinnertime dino conversations will never be the same.

In case you were wondering, after some 40 minutes of answering and then proceeding to ask the park ranger their OWN questions about dinosaurs, all three kids were sworn in as Junior Paleontologists.

They are their most prized badges from the National Parks so far. See tips for your own family’s visit below & don’t forget to pin!

Three kids hiking in desert with guidebook promotion for Hiking with Kids Southern California by Shelly Rivoli
Hiking with Kids Southern California includes hikes in Sequoia NP, Kings Canyon NP, Joshua Tree NP, Death Valley NP, and Channel Islands NP — and many more great hikes for families. (And yes, those are MY kids!) Thank you for your support! – Shelly

Plan your visit:

The fee for visiting Dinosaur National Monument is $25 per private vehicle for a 7-day pass. A $45 annual pass to Dinosaur National Monument is available at the park, or visitors may also use the “America the Beautiful” pass valid for one year’s entrance to the National Parks and Federal Recreation Areas ($80/year, click here for more information).

Dinosaur National Monument with kids, our new Junior Paleontolgist with Jr. Ranger badge

To confirm visiting dates and hours of operation at the Carnegie Quarry Exhibit Hall, click here or call 1-970-374-3000.

To see the correct location of the Dinosaur Quarry Visitor Center and Quarry Exhibit Hall on Google maps, click here.

To find available campgrounds within Dinosaur National Monument, click here.

To find a family-friendly hotel near Dinosaur National Monument, I recommend staying in nearby Vernal, where there are many hotels (and restaurants) to choose from, including a Holiday Inn Express with complimentary hot breakfasts and an indoor swimming pool.

To find out more about other attractions and activities within Dinosaur National Monument, including rafting, hiking, bicycling, and horseback riding, visit the National Park Service pages here.

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4 comments

Ann July 10, 2014 - 8:01 am

I never knew this existed, but what a fun place. My son, who loves the t-rex (and identifies all dinosaurs as a t-rex) would be a huge fan.

Heidi (@WagonersAbroad) July 10, 2014 - 6:36 am

This looks fantastic. I have family living in St. George Utah. Several years ago a road was being built and was halted because they found dinosaur bones. Now there is a small museum there. It is great fun, but going into the quarry looks wonderful. Oh, what an experience.

Jessie Voigts July 9, 2014 - 11:52 pm

This is SO COOL! That last photo of your daughter? Love it!

Shelly Rivoli July 10, 2014 - 1:12 am

Thanks, Jessie! That’s funny – I just had a note from one of her grandmother’s saying that photo was a knock-out favorite. It definitely warms my heart each time I see that look in her eyes – and makes me glad for every mile we drove on that crazy road trip! 😉

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