For young dinosaur enthusiasts, there’s nothing more thrilling than a visit to The Wyoming Dinosaur Center & Dig Sites in Thermopolis. Housed in a warehouse-like building, the museum is far from impressive from the outside, but the inside is quite the place.
The Wyoming Dinosaur Center & Dig Sites, Thermopolis
Many consider The Wyoming Dinosaur Center to be the best dinosaur museum in the U.S., and for good reason — there are over 20 full dinosaur skeletons on display! The most impressive specimens include a 35-foot T-Rex, the Supersaurus “Jimbo” — one of the largest dinosaurs ever mounted — and a Triceratops, which is Wyoming’s State Dinosaur. The museum is laid out by era, letting you move from the oldest eras to the most recent and every display is well marked with plenty of information.
The center is much more than a museum, as it is also a fully-functioning archeological site. This means you can observe true paleontologists at work in the dig-sites, as well as in the laboratories cleaning the bones. Dinosaur lovers of all ages will find this so intriguing that they’ll want to get right out there and join in!
And they can.
A special program dubbed “Dig for a Day” brings guests of all ages out into the field alongside the paleontologists unearthing fossils for themselves. The dig program fills up the entire day, with lunch provided, which means you’ll need two-days to do both the dig and the museum, if you participate in the full-day program.
If you only have one day to spend at the center, but you’d like to experience digging and the see the museum, make sure you arrive when the doors open in the morning, so you can sign up for the shorter, shovel-ready digs that are scheduled for the afternoons. They fill up on a first-come, first-serve basis.
More about the Wyoming Dinosaur Center
Address: 110 Carter Ranch Road, Thermopolis, WY 82443
Phone: 1-800-455-DINO (3466)
Website: wyodino.org
Image courtesy of Wyoming Dinosaur Center
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