On the Trail of Connecticut Dinosaurs

Discover the “Dinosaurs in your Backyard” with this colorful exhibit at West Hartford’s Children’s Museum. Interactive displays and hands-on activities give you a peek at how dinosaurs really looked and lived. 

Take off on your own “Dino Expedition” at Bristol’s Lake Compounce amusement park in Bristol. You’ll encounter friendly and fearsome animatronic dinos around every corner, and have the chance to unearth your own fossils!

At Nature’s Art Village, you are sure to come across a dino or two along the 1.5-mile nature trails. The dinosaurs here are accurate, life-sized and a few may even surprise you. There’s even a “MAZE-asaurus” that you need to slide through a Giant T-Rex to escape.

You’ll find one of the most fascinating collections of dinosaur artifacts, skeletons and fossils at Yale’s Peabody Museum. From the Great Hall’s amazing Age of Reptiles mural, to a mounted Brontosaurus skeleton, to fossilized footprints from Connecticut, a visit to the Peabody is as educational as it is awesome. The museum is currently closed for renovation, but be on the lookout for its reopening! In the meantime, you can enjoy at-home activities online.

Not every state is lucky enough to have an entire state park dedicated to dinosaurs. At Dinosaur State Park in Rocky Hill, you can see footprints of dinosaurs where they were found, as well as explore nature trails, see dioramas and shop at a cool dinosaur gift shop too. Please note, the museum is currently closed for major renovations, scheduled to reopen 2024.

Take off on your own “Dino Expedition” at Bristol’s Lake Compounce amusement park in Bristol. You’ll encounter friendly and fearsome animatronic dinos around every corner, and have the chance to unearth your own fossils!