Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life at Thanksgiving Point — Attraction in Lehi

We purchased a membership to Thanksgiving Point. If you have little people in your life and live close enough to visit regularly, I highly recommend getting a membership.

Specific to the "Dinosaur Museum" as it is called at my house, we have a 2.5yo dinosaur expert who absolutely lit up exploring this place. Various corners of the museum have kid friendly, hands on activities. Our family favorites include the sand and water box approximately central of the exhibits full of plastic dinosaur toys, a "dinosaur run" video game that entertains my older kids, and the small cave at the beginning of the big dinosaurs room where my kids like to pretend to be dinosaurs themselves.

The museum itself is well organized-- through a loop starting and ending in the lobby-- in a chronological format, beginning well before the classic era of easily recognizable giant lizards and continuing through the ice age of wooley mammoths, monstrous sharks, and 10-foot birds. There is plenty to see and read and informative videos to watch throughout the museum for the more mature patrons. Having run through the museum many (MANY) times with little people in tow, I would absolutely enjoy a kid-free visit to actually study all the placards as I find such things fascinating.

There is a small café in the front lobby of the museum next to a gift shop. You can bring a sack lunch or purchase pretty standard fast food options here. But no food or drinks are allowed in the exhibits.

Periodically, they will have special exhibits at the beginning of the museum loop. Often geared towards children of the elementary and middle school aged variety, I've seen science experiments, maze adventures, and play equipment rotate through this space. I want to say that the website lists the current exhibit and future exhibits on a calendar, but don't...

Our family went on a Wednesday during spring break. Such a bad idea. It was slammed. So many parents letting their kids just act however and hog everything. Be prepared to actually pay attention to your kid(s) because other kids are rude and just yank things from your kid. That’s not why I gave it 3 stars though. The museum can’t help how kids act. I think with the amount of people touching the glass and other things that they would have WAY more sanitize stations around. That REALLY bothered me and I forgot to bring my own. Make sure you and your kids use the restroom first because it’s one way in and one way out. We had to stop half way though then walk around again for us to start where we left off. The doorways are small especially for a family oriented place. They didn’t think of placements for strollers and other families to walk through together. They have time slots when you purchase but when you get there they said it didn’t even matter. So why bother have it that way if your not going to monitor the amount of people in the building. There were SO MANY people! A lot of people stood in the way of really enjoying the museum. Next time go during the week during school hours. Cafe was nice! Actually had food you can get not just snacks. Sad to know the Dino bones statues are plastic not real. I thought it would have been real. I’ve never been so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Still worth the money to see how big the creatures were and all the water/underwater animals were. That was my...

The only reason the Museum gets 4 stars instead of 5 is the poor condition of the water play area. I have been taking my kids here for 20 years, and never disappointed. As kids, they would rush through to get to the waterplay area and spend hours in there building islands with palm trees and all sorts of dinosaurs. There was always plenty of sand to go around, no matter how crowded it got. I haven't been there in years, and last week took my Granddaughter, and many of my young adult kids. We were all heartbroken to see how rundown the area has become. Now there are no palm trees, not very much sand, and the floods that would come through every 15-20 minutes no longer come. In fact, the water barely flows. Very disappointing! I HIGHLY suggest you fix up the water play area and restore it to it's glory to teach kids about WHY so many dinosaur bones end up dumped in one area, and how geological features are created. With the amount of $ you bring in on one ticket, and the little that has changed in 20 years, I think it is high time to reinvest in making this Dinosaur Museum top notch...which mostly it is, except that waterworks area.

On a side note.... best kept secret in town.... the homemade chocolate chip cookies sold in the Cafe are AMAZING!!!!! The cookies get 5 stars, as does the rest of the museum, and the...