Dinosaur Ridge (Denver, CO)

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The boys really love this book Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs

even though it has surprisingly scary looking pictures but I think it’s because my guys are true Seattle-ites who just like to put a pirate on anything to make it a little cooler. (What could be cooler than pirate dinosaurs???!!)  But I tried to use that dinosaur connection to get them to do something I wanted to do when we were in Denver.  Apparently there are so many dinosaur bones in Denver that the stadium builders actually found some buried on the baseball stadium grounds when they built Coors Field.  I wanted to see these bones up close, so I convinced the family to go to Dinosaur Ridge on a super-hot day.

It was sweltering.  There is supposed to be some kind of tram or shuttle tour that leaves on the half hour.  I don’t know if it’s super-reliable, but I know we just missed one when we were there because we had too many people and then we had to wait over 40 minutes for the next one and I can’t remember what we paid per person, but I think it was only a few dollars.  (FYI-This place looks like the type of place where time doesn’t really exist, which I guess is perfect for fossils, right?)
Anyways, I thought it was worth the wait.

We saw actual dinosaur footprints.

And bones.

And things that might be bones.

The boys loved the shuttle.  They sometimes refused to get out to see the bones because they loved the little bus. (Boys. Will. Be. Boys.) But they also posed for some neat pictures.

And when we finished we ended up at a the Blue Cow Cafe in Morrison a short drive away.  It had really yummy food

and colossal ice cream cones.  I really wanted a dipped vanilla one, but I didn’t get my way.

This time.

(PS. for some reason the actual Dinosaur Ridge website is not working when I click through right now……you might want to call them before you make a trip there.

PPS this is my weekly post linkup for Photo Friday on Deliciousbaby.)

14 thoughts on “Dinosaur Ridge (Denver, CO)

  1. That looks like so much fun! How exciting to see all of that outside a museum.

    Have you come across the book series Astrosaurs? If they like dinosaur pirates they might like dinosaurs in space (after reading this my kids were totally convinced by the books premise that a meteorite didn’t wipe out the dinosaurs because they had already left earth and were travelling through space having adventures!) They’re chapter books for slightly older children but both my kids liked listening to them when they were 3-6yrs old.

  2. Such adorable pictures! We went to Dinosaur Ridge a few years ago but during winter. We didn’t get to explore the sites but stayed at the Visitor’s Center area. Were those large, themed, decorated plastic dinosaurs still outside? Glad your boys had a great time!

    1. Oh yes, those dinosaurs were still there. I don’t remember decorations, but the boys loved the big dinos. (These were easier to understand than fossils.)

  3. Oh my gosh. SO cool! We will have to do this in a few years. Not only will the boys be enthralled (dinosaurs? YES!) but my husband would be in heaven. We will definitely be grabbing that book from the library! Because you are right, every thing is cooler with pirates, just like everything tastes better with bacon 😉

  4. My boys were obsessed with dinosaurs when they were little and would have loved visiting Dinosaur Ridge. We drove through Colorado in November but unfortunately didn’t stop to find any dino bones. Maybe we can do that on a future trip.

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