Dinosaur Journey Museum — Attraction in Fruita

This place is such a gem! My 7 year old fossil and dino loving child was in heaven. We spent quite a while here walking through multiple times and feeling free to take our time with our visit. We went on a Thursday, mid-day. It was fairly empty. I would go here as an adult to just enjoy it. There are several fossils and casts that you can touch. Everything is fairly close so you can really picture the size of these creatures. Most of the fossils were found in Colorado or Utah, which is pretty neat since it's relatively nearby. I appreciated the map at the end that showed the mountains and canyons and areas where the fossils are found and layers of the sediment. We loved seeing the peek into the room where they are processing incoming fossils. Definitely walk up the stairs to the optional viewing area near the offices. It gives a different perspective on the exhibits and allows you to see more of the work area where they are working on the incoming fossils. The gift shop was reasonably priced with several inexpensive options. The restrooms are clean and spacious. You walk past the gift shop on the way out, but you don't have to walk through it to exit! The staff at the gift shop were friendly. My only comment is the one animatronic dino needs some repair around the jaw (the outer skin is kind of flopping off). Such a minor complaint for such a fun and educational museum. Tip- if you have a small kid, bring a quarter so they can ride the dino in...

This is specifically for the dino digs that are part of Museum of Western Colorado. I initially balked at the 100 per person price tag, but my 10 year old and I decided to let it be our one thing this summer. I booked a room since we were coming from 3 hours away. The registration process is fairly confusing, you have to have separate emails per registrants, even if they are a child. All registrations are completely separate, even if they are a child, if you sign up for a waitlist this, too, is separate per registrant I finally managed to register us for what I thought was one date, when the email registration came it had a different date. I emailed for clarification....no reply. I called the number....no answer. I admit, it fell off my radar, which is my fault. They finally sent out a batch email and it still had wrong date. I called...no answer. I emailed...no reply. I emailed again...finally to get a reply days later (once we were in the window for no refund, of course) saying I had registered for the wrong date and so sorry no money back and little chance to get in another date. They need better organization, better communication and an easier registration process. Can't speak on the actual trip itself, of course, since it is a $200 ($300 if you count in the room I probably can't get a refund for) experience we won't have. Can't believe I just blew our summer...

A smaller museum, but a lot of good exhibits! I think it might possibly be a little more aimed towards families with smaller children, but a lot of the information is good for adults to read (as in it isn't super dumbed down or obviously written for small children).

Lots of skeletons and bones, plus some models of what some dinosaurs may have looked like in real life. Many things were from the local area, which is really cool to see so many things from this part of the world. There's also a paleontology lab.

There were a few areas for kids to play, or at least interact with things. There was an "earthquake zone" with a shaking pad, which I remember from visiting here as a kid almost 30 years ago. There was also a sand pit the dig up replicas of bones, and a water feature that we couldn't get to work but you were supposed to build a dam with rocks. There's also a dinosaur that growls at you when you push a button.

Honestly one of my favorite parts was the aquarium with the little gar and catfish. Gar are so neat!

We spent a little over an hour here. If you're looking for something to do, have some time to kill, or have little ones, I'd...