Dinosaur Ridge Main Visitor Center — Attraction in Golden

You can see real fossils and real dinosaurs' footprints at the Dinosaur Ridge! My son to be 5th grade son and I organized an impromptu trip with a few of his classmates and their moms and we totally enjoyed ourselves there. It's our first time visiting and so we thought to get a general idea of lay of the land (literally) by taking the shuttle bus service. It's air conditioned and comfortably sat 10 people. The shuttle bus was driven by a college student majoring in Geology. It was so educational to listen, talk and ask questions to a geology student working as our guide. There was a Tips Box by the shuttle bus entrance that you are welcome to tip our guide. Prices for the shuttle service are current $15/adult and $10/kid. They included the $3 entrance fee to the Exhibit that you'd otherwise have to pay to get in. The round trip took about 45 mins and you hop off the bus at 3 stops to look at different dinos' tracks. Along the way, you will see that if you were to hike along the same way, there are more stops and points of interests. The Guide told us information of these points of interests even though the bus didn't stop to let us down.

We had lots of fun learning about the roaming dinosaurs in Colorado 100-120 million years ago! We found out the Stegosaurus is the State dinosaur (!!!) because the first remains were found in 1937 in Canyon City, CO! And to see underwater fossils in the exposed rocks when part of CO was under sea level millions and millions of years ago was kinda mind blowing!

The Exhibit area was small but very kid friendly with lots of pictures, plaster replicas and one real Dino bone! Adults with curious minds wouldn't be bored either. It's also air conditioned. Right outside the Exhibit, there is a little sandbox where each person (yes including adults) can dig for "bones/teeth" replicas that you can't take home with you as a souvenir.

Then, there is the Gift shop. The kids spent a lot of time looking for precious gems, stones and minerals. Prices are reasonable. There's only one restroom in the parking lot for public use. It's not the cleanest because well.. selfish people. But there's toilet paper available and you can inform the staff in the Exhibit and Giftshop if there's a serious need to clean it.

Hope all these pieces of info...

This is one of the most interactive paleontology museums I know of. Along with nearby Triceratops Trace in Golden, it allows you to walk through the outdoor world of dinosaur hunters. Throw in the Museum of Natural History in Morrison and you have the whole package.

I started my hike at the Phillips 66 in Morrison and had a close look at the Dakota hogback anticline just heh and it. Then I hiked through Red Rocks Park, taking in the geologic points of interest. Alameda Parkway in Red Rocks joins the Dinosaur Ridge road cut at the Discovery Center. Educational exhibits up one side of the hogback and down the other show what paleontologists see when they unearth fossils...dinosaur tracks, hints of how the mountains around you formed, and fossils of big and small creatures of the past.

At the other end, I took Rooney Road into Golden for a close look at Green Mountain and vistas of the Table Mountains and the Rockies around Clear Creek Canyon. Most of the hike is also accessible by car. It's the geotourist's dream.

If you have time, check out the Mining and Mineralogy Museum in Golden, the History Museum, Triceratops Trace, and the lava flows on North and South Table Mountains.

There are places to eat and shop in both Morrison and Golden. Also much more to see and do in the area.

I mention that my hike was free. There are various guided tours, group tours, and membership packages available. Check the Dinosaur Ridge website...

The park is fine, but re: the self-guided audio tour that you can buy for $6: Skip it. It comes in segments that are not keyed to specific stops along the tour, and are not listed in the order of the stops along the tour. Using the "next" or "previous" buttons doesn't always match up with the audio with stations on the tour. While the content is helpful, using the recorded tour is very frustrating. It would be SO SIMPLE to label each stop #1, #2, #3, etc and label the associated recordings to correspond--that would eliminate the problem. Instead, buy the walking tour with a live guide. Keep in mind that if you walk it will be over two miles round trip, and literally A MILE OF THAT WILL BE UP A VERY LONG HILL. There are very few areas to stop, sit and rest, and NO WATER ALONG THE TRAIL. Buy the bus tour if you or your kids are not up for that. And skip the $3 visit to the visitors center, it's very small and there is little to see, and there's nothing there that you haven't already seen if you've ever been to a natural history museum. Last, although some are clearly visible and others are marked, many of the tracks are indistinct and difficult to discern from the vantage points provided, and they need to be marked better; this is another source of frustration. Some of the guides will ID them with a laser pointer, which is...