For lack of much do to in central Utah, I ended up at an attraction complex called Thanksgiving Point in Lehi, between Salt Lake City and Provo. Within Thanksgiving Point is a museum called the Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life. Meaning, it’s a dinosaur museum. All the dinosaurs you could ever want.
Thanksgiving Point
Thanksgiving Point has five attractions, plus a large movie theater and a golf course. All five attractions carry the mission to get kids excited about science and the natural world, so everything is pretty squarely aimed at children and families.
The Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life is probably the biggest attraction at Thanksgiving Point. Then there’s the Butterfly Biosphere, an insectarium and butterfly conservatory. Farm Country is a real working farm with opportunities to milk a cow and ride a horse. The Museum of Natural Curiosity is a kid’s discovery museum with hundreds of hands-on exhibits and even a ropes course and outdoor discovery garden. And behind it all is Ashton Gardens, a 50-acre site with broad lawns, tons of flowers, separate garden areas, and a huge grotto waterfall. There also seems to be a fair amount of religious art scattered around.
Events & Good-to-know
During my snowy March visit, it seemed like a lot of it was closed down. Farm Country seemed to be, and I can’t imagine Ashton Gardens had anything blooming. In fact, I’m not even sure I saw Ashton Gardens when I was there. It, and the curiosity museum, are a full two miles away from the Museum of Ancient Life. When I arrived, I thought it would be much more walkable and cohesive than it is. Instead, I found myself walking behind buildings and through parking lots to see different parts of it. You can get a pass to do it all in one day, but you’ll need to use your car to access it all.
Thanksgiving Point seems to thrive on events throughout the year. Right now, there is a Tulip Festival in Ashton Gardens. After that are baby animal days at the farm. There are symphony concerts, kid’s programming, dog walks, and even a book club centered on gardening-related novels. It does seem to be a center of activity for the area. With plenty of dining options and an outlet mall right across the highway, there really is something for most members of the family in Lehi.
Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life
Like most of the attractions at Thanksgiving Point, the Museum of Ancient Life is aimed mostly at kids and families with kids. This is the place for your dinosaur-obsessed kiddo to really get excited about.
The Museum of Ancient Life is set up as a one-way journey through time of all the dinosaur species that have existed – or at least a lot of them! There are some interactive stations, but almost all of it is dinosaur skeletons. I’ll do my best to walk through the experience.
Entrance
When you enter, you are greeted with a Jurrasic Park-like T-Rex skeleton in a soaring atrium. An upper level showcases kids’ art. Or at least it can – there wasn’t anything up there during my visit. The admission desk is straight ahead, with a large gift shop and cafe to the left.
Once you pay, you’ll enter the experience to the left, behind the ticket desk.
Paleontology Lab
The first room at the Museum of Ancient Life looks like an archaeological dig, with several figures around the room working in the dirt. There’s an explanation of fossils and how they are formed and a neat look into a “real” paleontology lab.
I can’t tell if it’s really a real paleontology lab. It’s billed as such, and there were people in there, mostly chatting. But there were some really large pieces around and it all looked a little too posed and Disney-fied to be a real working lab. But, you know, I’ve never been in a real paleontology lab so maybe it’s the real thing. Your kid will definitely believe so.
Ancient Sea Life
I know there are names for each of the prehistoric eras we will walk through, but I don’t know what they are. It wasn’t like there were huge signs saying, “YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE JURASSIC PERIOD” as you walk from room to room. Suffice it to say, this next room is the early, early life on earth. The prehistoric seas and primordial forests.
Painted walls and oversized sea monsters hang from the ceiling, almost making you feel like you’re underwater. The plant life and massive millipedes look alien. Then you get a glimpse of our first dinosaurs, some finned and toothy alligator-like creatures.
T-Rexes and Sauropods and Triceratops, Oh My
I’m probably combining two rooms here, but the heart of the Museum of Ancient Life is a large, two-level, wrap-around situation. You’re greeted with the face of a huge, long sauropod that spans the length of the large room. Walking down the ramps, you can see several interesting skulls and flying dinosaurs above. Down on the floor, two Tyrannosaurus Rex seem locked in battle.
All around are other dinosaur skeletons, large and small. In a waterfall area are two cute spiky-headed specimens. There are a few interactive displays on the walls and a corner with backlit amber chunks filled with prehistoric insects, just like in the movies.
The path cycles through a water-play room with erosion tables filled with sand that kids can manipulate. Then back into the main room and past some triceratops. A cute baby dinosaur sits on the floor near the exit of this room. It sounds like they are remodeling this room right now. It’s going to be closed for a while.
Under The Sea
Next, you enter a blue-light-filled room with all sorts of ancient sea creatures. A massive sea turtle dominates the middle, while scary, toothy fish and a long plesiosaur line the curvy walls.
Giant Ground Sloths and Saber-Tooth Tigers
Probably my favorite megafauna is the giant ground sloth, and you can see one in a climbing pose here. (They gave us avocados!) Also among the rocks is a saber-toothed cat (with my favorite latin name – smilodon) and a cute pygmy mammoth. In the opposite corner is a little theater with videos.
Further along, is a dopey-looking megalodon face and a great white shark hanging from the ceiling. I feel like if they are going to give us a mouth, it should at least be one we can walk through. These were my least favorite in the museum.
Wooly Mammoth
My favorite scene in the Museum of Ancient Life is this finale with a wooly mammoth being attacked by humans. Because now we’ve made it all the way through time for humans to appear! These humans appear to be throwing spears and getting crushed underfoot by the massive mammoth.
Dig Quarry
At the very end, you and your kids get the chance to dig in some sand pits for your own fossils, of which there are sure to be plenty available. Bringing the whole experience back to the idea in the first room around the paleontology lab.
At the entrance/exit area is the Mammoth Screen Theater, showing IMAX-style 3D movies lasting 45-50 minutes. Each show is $7.00-8.50.
Admission & Hours
Admission for the Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life is $24 for adults, $21 for seniors 65+, $19 for youth 13-24, and $17 for kids 3-12. Ages 2 and under are free. Hours are 9 am-8 pm and they are closed on Sundays. It takes about an hour to go through, depending on your play time.
OR, you can pay $38 for admission to all five attractions in one day, $29 for kids 3-12. Otherwise, it’s the exact same pricing structure at every other location as the Museum of Ancient Life, except for Farm Country, which is $10 per person, regardless of age. If you’re local and want to take advantage of a year-long membership, they start around $139, with discounts for family groups, like two adults and all their children or two grandparents and all their grandkids.
Conclusion
I really only went to the Museum of Ancient Life because it was there and I was bored and already inside looking around. If I had to do it over again, I think I might have had a better time at the Butterfly Pavilion, even though I’ve done that sort of thing before. I can really only recommend the Museum of Ancient Life for kids with dino-crazy kids, or for families doing the entire Thanksgiving Point experience together.
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