Devour a Dinosaur Vacation

They’re big, they’re powerful — and they’re dead. But you can still get your fix of the world’s most charismatic extinct species in many places across North America.

Dinosaur Travel: The Field Museum, Chicago
The largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus rex ever discovered (shown here in a computer rendering) was unearthed in South Dakota in 1990 by paleontologist Sue Hendrickson. The Field Museum will celebrate the fossil’s 10th anniversary of public viewing in May with several new attractions, including “RoboSUE: The T. rex Experience,” in which a robotic Sue responds to humans; a new 3-D movie, “Waking the T. rex: The Story of SUE”; and appearances by fossil hunter Sue May 29-31.

 
Dinosaur Travel: Be the Dinosaur Exhibit
Ever wanted to get inside the head of a giant extinct lizard? Give it a try at “Be the Dinosaur,” a traveling exhibit that’s on display until May 4 at the Rochester Museum & Science Center in Rochester, N.Y. Sit at a simulator pod and see your dino on a high-definition screen. Make it do what dinos do — eat, prey, love. “The more you learn about your environment, predators, your own capabilities, etc., the longer you stay alive,” said Debra A. Jacobson, director, marketing and community affairs.

 
Dinosaur Travel: Jurassic Park the Ride, Universal Studios Hollywood
Want to relive the 1993 Spielberg thriller “Jurassic Park”? Check out Jurassic Park the Ride at Universal Studios Hollywood. You won’t hear snappy dialogue from Sam Neill, Laura Dern or Jeff Goldblum, but you’ll have a good scare. Climb into your raft, then hang on while it accelerates, turns and plunges 84 feet down a river. You’ll get drenched and come face to face with a mighty mean, 50-foot T. rex and some other heart-pumping prehistoric nasties.

 
Dinosaur Travel: Royal Tyrrell Museum, Alberta, Canada
This leading center of paleontological research has more than 120,000 fossils and sits in the middle of the fossil-bearing strata known as the Late Cretaceous Horseshoe Canyon Formation. Dinosaur Hall has one of the world’s largest collections of fossil remains, including Stegosaurus, Camarasaurus and the ever-popular T. rex. Beginning on May 22, the museum will celebrate its 25th anniversary by showing off 25 of its most significant specimens in a special exhibit, “Alberta Unearthed.”

 
Dinosaur Travel: Dinosaur State Park, Connecticut
Take a walk on the Jurassic side at Dinosaur State Park, one of the largest dinosaur track sites in North America. Dilophosaurus, the handsome carnivore shown above, probably made these footprints approximately 200 million years ago. See a life-size model and marvel at the orange crests on its head that scientists think were for display. The park’s arboretum contains more than 250 species of plants that first appeared during the period when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

 
Dinosaur Travel: American Museum of Natural History, New York
To find the single largest collection of dinosaur fossils in the world, bring the kids for a memorable visit to the Halls of Saurischian and Ornithischian Dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History. You’ll see the first Velociraptor skull ever found and two recently discovered embryonic-sized dinosaur skulls that may be baby Velociraptors. The museum’s education/travel program is also offering a dino dig in western Colorado in July — paleontologists included.

 
Dinosaur Travel: Dinosaur National Monument, Utah and Colorado
Dinosaur National Monument, about a four-hour drive from Salt Lake City and 5 1/2 hours from Denver, thundered into the news in February with the discovery of Abydosaurus mcintoshi, a new species within the brachiosaurus family. “Aby” brings the monument’s list of newly discovered species to 14. Though you can’t view the long-necked plant eater’s fossilized remains just yet, you can hike along the half-mile Fossil Discovery Trail, reachable via a shuttle from the temporary visitor center. A new visitor center is scheduled to open in fall 2011.

 
Dinosaur Travel: Museum of Western Colorado
Have you dreamed of digging up your own Allosaurus, Apatosaurus or Stegosaurus? The Museum of Western Colorado in Grand Junction, Colo., offers dino digs that last anywhere from half a day to five days. Participants gather at the Dinosaur Journey Museum and head to quarries to help paleontologists dust off the past. Think big, but know that you might discover small: Some adult dinosaurs unearthed from the Fruita Paleontological Area in western Colorado were smaller than a chicken.

 
Dinosaur Travel: IMAX Movies
If you don’t want to get hot and dusty looking at fossils, check out a couple of IMAX movies that are now playing in theaters. “Dinosaurs: Giants of Patagonia” is showing in Washington, D.C., Fort Lauderdale, Dallas and London. Meanwhile, “Dinosaurs Alive 3D,” playing in Birmingham, Ala.; New Orleans; Boston; Portland, Ore.; Melbourne, Australia; and London, shows the beasts locked in mortal combat, nesting in colonies, protecting their young and facing catastrophic forces of nature.

 
Dinosaur Travel: Dinosaur Valley State Park, Texas
About an hour’s drive from Dallas, sauropods, carnosaurs and ornithopods left their footprints in the ancient riverbed. Visitors can wade into the Paluxy River and spot the tracks beneath gently flowing, crystal-clear water. Kids can also marvel at two fiberglass models — a 70-foot Apatosaurus and a 45-foot T. rex — that were built for the New York World’s Fair Dinosaur Exhibit of 1964-1965.

 
Dinosaur Travel: Judith River Dinosaur Institute
This facility in Billings, Mont., is offering weeklong digs this year from June 27 to July 2, July 4-9 and July 18-23. What might you unearth? In 2005, fossil hunters discovered “Ralph” the Montanasaurus, a new species of sauropod. “Skulls are incredibly rare, so this find is highly significant,” said Elena Victory, Judith River Dinosaur Institute outreach and education coordinator. In 2008, a team discovered a stegosaur mass grave, the first of its kind in North America.

 
Dinosaur Travel: Dinosphere, Indianapolis
Ever wanted to drift back in time 65 million years or so? Head to Dinosphere at the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, where faux Albertosaurs appear to be busting out of the building. Inside, you’ll find fossils of dinosaur families and juveniles, including Bucky the teenage T. rex, Baby Louie the Oviraptor and an entire family of Hypacrosaurus. Dinosphere also has a functioning paleo lab, a hands-on dig program and interactive stations and activities.