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Wyoming Dinosaur Center- Family Friendly Attractions


Last year, I wrote a blog post about the Dinosaur Museums on our family bucket list.  After we saw one of our favorite Youtubers, Coyote Peterson, visit the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, the kids were even more excited to see the fossils there.  We really enjoyed it and it made a great compliment to the Mammoth Dig Site, as we spent a lot of time comparing the two types of animals.



As amazing as it is to see full dinosaur skeletons, it's even cooler to see the variety of life we can find in the fossil record.  From piles of trilobites to fish, crabs, plants, and more, a significant portion of biological life is on display at the museum.  The smaller collection, though, means that the amount of each species isn't boring or overwhelming for kids.  They were fascinated!

The museum hosts a very impressive collection of swimming, flying, and stomping dinosaurs!  According to my research, there are about 60 animals represented.  The kids especially loved the plesiosaur and mososaurus animals on the wall and enjoyed comparing them to fish and marine mammals.



Our entire family enjoyed how the dinosaurs were displayed, with complete fossils in realistic poses.  There was a hadroaurid mama feeding grasses to a nest of hatchlings, a pterodactyl flying overheard, carnivores chomping, and small dinosaurs fighting.  It really made you feel like you were walking in a dinosaur park.

My real "Jurassic Park" moment came when I saw the 106 ft long "Supersaurus."  I felt just like Dr. Allen when he sees the real dinosaur for the first time.  The scale of it is just amazing.  It stretches from one end of the building to another!  We had a lot of fun as a family dreaming about what life would have been like when those big animals were on the earth.





One of the fossils that the museum is very excited about is the camarasourus, which stands on it's hind legs and peeks over a partial wall into the gift shop.  The positioning is very cool, showing how these big dinosaurs may have used their tails for balance.  As you can see in the pictures, the dinosaur towers massively above my husband.

The museum itself is fairly small, which makes it a great stopover for a few hours.  You can sneak in an educational opportunity and a chance to stretch your legs all at the same time.  Our family has several members with sensory needs, and we really liked that the museum was very low-key and NOT overwhelming.  Plus, there are so many cool dinosaurs!  If you find yourself in Wyoming, you should visit the tiny town of Thermopolis and the Dinosaur Center.












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