5 Ways To Explore Dinosaur National Monument With Families
Entering Dinosaur National Monument from Utah is at 11625 East 1500 South, Jensen, UT. From here you will show the Park Ranger at the entrance booth your National Park pass or $25 per vehicle. Just a few fun things that we explored with our family whereas you can explore too.
Table of Contents
1. Visit the Quarry Visitor Center
Dinosaur National Monument Junior Ranger Booklet
Before visiting the Monument stop and go to the Visitor Center to grab the Junior Ranger booklets for the kids to complete. When they finish they will get to earn their Dinosaur National Monument Junior Ranger badges. Grabbing a Junior Ranger Booklet for different age levels will be a great way to learn and explore the Monument and Exhibit.
Inside and Outside the Visitor Center
Outside the Visitor center there are dinosaur sculptures to take pictures at. The parking area is large so there is indeed plenty of spots to park. Walking to the visitor center you will cross over a small bridge.
The inside of the Visitor center has an informational area to go and explore and a wonderful shopping area. The Center has toy dinosaurs the kids can play with too. These toy dinosaurs were our youngest absolutely favorite thing to play with while waiting for her older siblings to purchase something at the store.
2- Explore the Quarry Exhibit Hall
Timed Tickets for the Quarry
When we explored the Quarry Exhibit they had timed ticketed entry. You can reserve your ticket online at the NPS reservation website or you can see if the Park Ranger at the entrance booth has any extra tickets. We received our tickets from the entrance booth. So it’s not always required to reserve them online.
For visiting the Quarry you will need to drive your car to the top of the hill where the Exhibit is. If it is in the summer they have a shuttle bus that will take you up. Either way would work- but when we drove up to the top parking area; they had plenty of parking. Taking a large RV up there would not be possible since you have to drive around a smaller road around the hill. They had parking for smaller RV’s however our 45 foot 5th wheel would have had some trouble parking and leaving.
Inside the Dinosaur Quarry Exhibit
When entering the Exhibit it consists of 2 floors. On the top floor, you will be able to look out at the dinosaur wall from above. That is the best viewing area to see it all from above. The Exhibit has interactive information areas and a whole bunch of historical pictures and facts.
Below on the lower level, you can touch the wall where the dinosaur bones are lodged into the hill. They have many displays of dinosaur bones behind railing. Even have the head of a Tyrannosaurus rex in a glass case.
3- Drive to View the Petroglyph and Pictographs
The writings on the walls from the past ancestors that lived in this area thousands of years ago. The Fremont people lived in the area and you can see here where they made pictographs and carved petroglyphs. Different areas in Dinosaur National Monument you can drive to view these rare artifacts.
List of areas you can see the sites through out the Monument.
My kids really loved trying to figure out what some of the drawings were and the stories behind them. See if you can imagine what type of stories they would tell by drawing on the sandstone walls.
4- Stopping to View Turtle Rock
Finding Turtle Rock
While first looking out for Turtle Rock it looks like its just its shell in the distance. But in fact my boys actually found the rock that looked like a turtle on the top of the hill. Can you see it? It looks like a turtle head looking out on the right.
This area is all dirt and you can walk down a bit around the trees and shrubs. This gave my kids and area to go explore and see what type of plants and animals they could find. They even sat down to work on their Junior Ranger Booklets. When the kids finish their junior ranger booklets they will need to take them back to the visitor center to get sworn in to become a Junior Ranger for the Dinosaur National Monument.
5- Follow the Main Road
The Road will lead you all the way to Colorado where you will still be in the Dinosaur National Monument. But after you pass the Green River entrance there are not any more dinosaur bones. But there are Pictographs and Petroglyphs you can go check them out on the map listed above.
Pull off on the turn offs at the Green River and play by the water. Depending on the season if the water is warmer or colder you can go river rafting or just wade in the water. There is a boat ramp at the first Green River entrance on the right side going down to the shore. We stopped there and watched a boat dock and watched fish swimming in the river.
On the way to Dinosaur National Monument we stopped with our RV at Flaming Gorge. Stop along the Wyoming side but there is a side in Utah that is very nice. We were even able to park our RV there to eat lunch before continuing on to our RV park near Dinosaur National Monument.
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