TURNER Travel Guide: Dinosaur Fever in 2016

Families are flocking to movie theaters this month to see the latest Pixar masterpiece, The Good Dinosaur, which asks the question: What if the asteroid that forever changed life on Earth missed the planet completely and giant dinosaurs never became extinct?

Alas, that asteroid did wipe out the dinos, and you can’t have adventures with real-life Apatosauruses and Pterodactyls – a fact that will be disappointing to the kids when the credits start to roll. But don’t worry: we know the best places to take a family with dino-fever in 2016.

UTAH: Dino Heaven

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKsTk34qVCk Utah, home to the most complete record of prehistoric life than anywhere else on the planet, offers countless dino-tastic attractions. Here are just a few faves:

• Dinosaur National Monument (Maybell) – Experience the world’s most famous dinosaur fossil quarry, a 200-foot-long sandbar layered with prehistoric plant and animal fossils discovered by paleontologist Earl Douglass in 1909. You’ll see more than 1,500 dinosaur bones left exposed in the sandstone wall at the visitor center and hike the monument’s numerous trails.
• Ogden’s George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park (Ogden) – This eight-acre outdoor museum features prehistoric crawlers, predators, marine creatures and flying reptiles dating from the Permian through Cretaceous periods. More than 125 realistic sculptures of dinosaurs, all reproduced based on the findings of fossil skeletal remains, fill the park.
• College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum (Price) – Best known for discovering the Utahraptor, Utah’s adopted state dinosaur and the star of Steven Spielberg’s original Jurassic Park film, the CEU Prehistoric Museum has eight complete skeletons for the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, dinosaur tracks removed from local coal mines, dinosaur eggs and other fossils.

Vidanta’s Joya Cirque du Soleil

There are countless reasons to visit Vidanta Riviera Maya, where luxury vacationing meets natural beauty. But the one that fits in with our topic here is Cirque du Soleil’s new Joya experience, created specially for the resort. The show re-creates the history and culture of Mexico, from the migration of the monarch butterflies, to the asteroid believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, all in Cirque’s magical, multimedia style. It’s the perfect Good Dinosaur follow-up!

The New Mexico Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque

Dinosaurs once ruled New Mexico, and the state’s incredible Museum of Natural History in Albuquerque takes visitors back in time to those prehistoric days. The experience starts before you even enter, with two life-size New Mexico dinosaurs (Spike, a pentaceratops and a fierce Albertosaurus) welcoming you. Inside, you’ll go face-to-face with the king of the dinosaurs in the T. Rex Attack exhibit, featuring Stan, the second-largest Tyrannosaurus ever found.

The museum’s newest permanent exhibit, Dawn of the Dinosaurs, is the only Triassic hall in North America, where you’ll discover New Mexico's state fossil, and one of the very first dinosaurs, Coelophysis. You’ll also encounter the last of the giant amphibians and meet the terrors of the Triassic—a 12-foot long predatory erythrosuchian and the crocodile-like phytosaurs. And that’s just scratching the surface: suffice to say, if your family loves dinosaurs, they won’t want to leave The New Mexico Museum of Natural History.

Denver Dinos

Like New Mexico, Colorado has deep dinosaur roots, with fossils regularly uncovered all over. Fun fact: when construction began on Coors Field in downtown Denver, workers uncovered the bones of a triceratops – which is why the Colorado Rockies’ mascot is (you guessed it) a triceratops named Dinger. The Mile High City and surrounding areas are home to all kinds of dino-related attractions, including:

• The Denver Museum of Nature & Science – This world-class museum boasts more than 115,000 dinosaur, plant and mammal fossils in tis collection, as well as the incredible Prehistoric Journey exhibit.
• Dinosaur Ridge – Go see the original Good Dinosaur! Located in nearby Morrison, this outdoor attraction is where some of the first dinosaur fossils were ever discovered, including Apatosaurus.
• Triceratops Trail – This half-mile trail in Golden is full of fossilized footprints made dinosaurs 68 million years ago!

Toronto’s Newest Reptilian Resident

The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto recently welcomed an incredible (and incredibly rare) new addition to its fossil collection: Wendiceratops pinhornensis. If that name seems like a mouthful, you can call this dino by his nickname: Cornelius. Weighing in at two tons, the 79-million-year-old Cornelius was a member of the horned dinosaur family Ceratopsidae, which includes the famous Triceratops. And just like his cousin, Cornelius sports some seriously spectacular horns.