Field Station: Dinosaurs — Attraction in Gypsum Township

The first thing that I noticed is as soon as we walked into the park or even before entering the park there wasn't any kind of statues, fountains, dinosaurs, or references to dinosaurs as a preface. Even though you can see the long neck dinos outside of the park it would be amazing if there dino footprints, ancient prints of leaves, ancient bird fossils, or just fossils in general in the path as you walk into the park. Most theme parks have a focal point statue or something as you enter. There was only a janky jeep and no dinosaurs in the main entrance. The build a bear entrance in KC for Dinos had an amazing entrance. It would be cool if there were walls with bones on the side of them or a statue of bones like a dinosaur overhead or dinosaur noises as you walk into the park or even some kind of music.

This park really needs a splash pad or playground for the kiddos. It would bring a lot more traffic through and some small prehistoric sea dwelling dinosaurs the area around the splash pad. The crates (buildings) baking in the sun and if there were vines and trees or even fake trees or dirt over the top of them to give it a jungle effect would be nice. Waterfalls and fountains are a nice addition to any park. The park is missing some catalpa trees and general shade. We would walk around an entire trail without any shade or misting areas and bake in the sun.

The raptor maze needs needs a lot more attention. It was shredded from visitors cutting through it. It would be nice to add some fences with raptors on the other side jumping and shaking the fences. Not sure where the raptors were in the raptor maze. There was one dino in the maze and again would be nice to add a tree in that area and some tunnels or areas where you go underground and then come out the other side. This would lead into some kind of Jungle and bridges or some swooping dinos in the air.

There was one guy (employee) who shone through the entire day and he would finish his show at the amphitheater and five minutes later go to another show. He was dripping in sweat. This park really needs to hire more entertainers and greeters.

The trails are not smooth. My wife ended up slipping and falling then scrapping her knee really bad and the guy was about to begin another show offered us some bandaids she continued to bleed for another 30 minutes. The Mosasaur didnt have any noises in the crate and it definitely gave a good appearance that it was swimming but needs movement or something to give more aesthetics or movement. It would be great if there some kind of key that visitors could purchase to use on each dinosaur and have it do something extra special.

Example: XPark has wands that allows visitors to make walls move and make magical spells trigger fog, and trigger color changes and enchanted noises. The wands also make owls and books move on the walls or displays move, the price point for the wands are $60.00 and up. These could be dino fossils, gems, teeth, talismans, totems, etc. Accessorize!

Make a track in the ground where a raptor is attached to it and runs around the park in the high grass and gives it the feeling like the visitors are being stalked or hunted. That could be an advertisement for live veloco raptors. Maybe smaller dinosaurs can run on a track as well.

There wasn't enough of a "vibe". It's like okay we have a theme park but it's not "alive" enough to the point where I felt enchanted walking into the park, through the park, and leaving the park. The park and the staff are being over worked at least the entertainers. Give him a raise!

Lastly the gift shop was very sparce. There could be dino stuffed animals, dinosaur key chains, name badges, candy, board games, derby monopoly, or a dino monopoly, water bottles, squirt guns, puzzles, rocks, etc.

The park could also have a small ice age mammal exhibit or scientific exhibit along with the fossil digging area. The park has some large blank areas and I'm guessing this is for future additioms but the park already needs to fill in the blanks they already...

The pros:

The dinosaurs are really well done, and although mostly stationary, are true size and it's easy to imagine how frightening a world would be were they still around. Additionally there was a lot of variety so everyone's favorite is likely to be included. Particularly liked they chose so many discovered in Kansas and adjacent locales.

The staff is enthusiastic and the show performers care about the kids having fun AND learning. The T-Rex feeding show was the best and my girls (4 & 6) particularly loved it.

The sand pit with the fossils to uncover was pretty popular. Lots of kiddos had a good time in there, and it was one of the few interactive activities that wasn't a add-on.

Its good to be able to come and go. Lots of places to eat close by so that's a welcome departure from most theme parks.

Cons: Whoever designed the park certainly underestimated the role of seasonal weather in Kansas. It gets HOT here, and that is going to drive a lot of people away as it gets deeper into summer. I can't imagine scorching out there in August. We actually hung out in the bathroom for about 10 minutes as it was one of the only air conditioned buildings in the place. #1 reason I wouldn't go back right away.

Felt a lot like a work in progress. Much of the landscaping was parched or dying and it felt particularly dry and scorched throughout the park. Shades were being installed while people were milling around, but there is a lot of upgrades needed in this area.

There is a big lack of interaction with much of the park. The dinos are great to look at, but after about 15 minutes, its more like a large scale, very cool looking wax museum.

SUGGESTIONS Add shade cloth over the majority of the dinosaur path. It wouldn't need to be that high and the sides could be left open to view the animals. Put misters under the shade cloth, at least in a few areas. Add more interactive features, which would make kids more likely to want to come back or upgrade to a season pass. Here's a few suggestions my wife and I came up with: A. Put a giant dino head coming out of jungle wall, where kids had pretend they are about to be eaten. Let them be able to touch it and take pictures. B. Make some of the animatronics stomp their feet. Build a deck or platform next to the exhibit and put some rumblers under there to make it feel like an earthquake or stampede. Engage more than just visual and aural senses. C. Overall, make it more jungle-like and less savannah. Water the vegetation, plant some vines. (Think isla nebular) D. Make a playground with rock formations, caves and tunnels, filled with exposed "fossils" and nooks and slides. Something they can climb work out some energy. E. Some kind of water feature. Maybe an underground tunnel with a plexiglass pond above it where you could feature some of the aquatic dinosaurs. Build a little river tumbling through the park. Would also help it not feel so hot. F. Instead of gravel or concrete pathways, why not cover the place in dino tracks? Let the kids step inside and see how big they really were. It would add one more little interesting quirk and cost very little. G. At some point, let them touch or hold a real fossil, somewhere in an exhibit.

Overall for one time its worth going. Its twice the cost of a movie and a lot more memorable. My girls have been pretending to be dinos ever since we went. But until they add a few things, I can't see a reason to...

In the time of Covid and social distancing, Field Station: Dinosaurs is a great place to visit that felt very safe! My children are three and seven and they had a blast. My daughter kept saying how cool it was that it looked like Jurassic Park (the movie). She was referring to the scenery and design of the park. I would agree that they did a good job making it feel like scenes out of the movie. The Raptor Maze to me was slightly underwhelming, but my kids loved it so much we had to go through again before we left. I think it was because I played along and said things like, "Do you hear that, they're close" and "Oh no, run before they get us" to make for some fun moments. Either way, it was a hit. The Compy camp scene was pretty cool and the kids loved that they looked like they were tearing apart the camp looking for food. After watching Camp Cretaceous on Netflix, Compys are now a favorite of my kids so this didn't surprise me at all that they loved it. We visited on a Sunday and arrived with just over an hour before closing. Because of this, we were charged the "twilight price" which meant each ticket was only $12. We had enough time to look at all of the dinosaurs, go back to the Raptor maze again, briefly do the fossil dig, and get a souvenir from the shop at the exit. We didn't have time to do mini golf, but my kids didn't mind. Tips: -Wear sunscreen/hat because there are not very many shaded areas throughout the attraction -Bring water and/or a small snack, especially if you have young children. They have a snack stand, but I did not see anyone in it when we walked by. I brought a very small backpack to carry this and Sunscreen etc. -Plan on spending 2-3 hours at the attraction, but know that if you just wanted to see the dinosaurs it is feasible to do in just one hour. -Wear comfortable shoes. The attraction is located on about 10 acres and the paths total about .5 miles of walking. It was easy for my two children to walk the whole length...