Dinosaurs Rule Connecticut

Visit the Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven, home to one of the world’s top paleontology collections. Inside the Great Hall, you’ll see a juvenile Apatosaurus skeleton, a mesmerizing 110-foot-long mural, “The Age of Reptiles,” painted by Rudolph Zallinger, and a fossil of the largest- known turtle species, Archelon.

At Rocky Hill’s Dinosaur State Park, see 500 authentic sandstone dinosaur tracks (one of the largest collections of preserved Jurassic tracks on the continent), explore an arboretum filled with plants from families that flourished during the Age of Dinosaurs, and touch fossils in the Discovery Room. Then head to the museum’s casting area to make a trip souvenir – a plaster cast of a Eubrontes footprint. For details and tips about the casting process (a change of clothes is a good idea), check the website.

In nearby downtown Hartford, the Connecticut Science Center features dinosaurs as part of more than 150 permanent exhibits. There’s a soaring Pterosaur and roaring animatronic Dilophosaurus. You can check out real fossils or find your own in a dig pit. There’s even Julius the Apatosaurus in the rooftop children’s garden. With all the other exhibits, movies and events, you may decide to stay longer than you thought.

The choice is yours.

If it’s east, spend the rest of the day, or maybe the next, in Montville at The Dinosaur Place, an outdoor park (not open in winter) with easy walking trails that lead past 25 life-size dinos crafted from concrete and steel. In Monty’s Playground (named for the massive T-Rex that towers over the parking lot), kids can climb on a 3-dimensional climbing web and an enormous (but not real) Pachyrhinosaurus skull. If it’s raining, head inside to Nature’s Art, an activity building where kids can dig for “fossils” in the Bone Zone, pan for gold and search for gems.

If it’s west, Lake Compounce in Bristol offers Dino Expedition (seasonal), a prehistoric-themed area that offers a fossil dig and pathways through a forest featuring 11 animatronic dinosaurs. The 40-foot creatures, including a T-Rex, Triceratops and Velociraptor, breathe, roar and look for prey. Facts and trivia about dinosaurs can be found along the way, but it might be best to keep an eye out for the roving beasts!