Utah Museum Of Natural History

From The Archives

Well, Mother Nature ruined my plans today, so we made alternate plans. We decided to go to The Utah Museum of Natural Sciences... or something to that extent. I am pretty sure all of those words are in the title, but possibly in the wrong order, and I don’t care to look it up. Fine... Okay it’s The Utah Museum Of Natural History. I was pretty darn close.

We met up with Heidi, Monica and Deitrich. After the adventure of parking, we all head towards the doors. We originally imagined this would be a free adventure, well the doors stated 6 bucks per adult. Well, after some deliberation, we can deal with this. So we go in, and the nice lady at the front desk informs us that they will be closing in 45 minutes, and to just go on in, free of charge. w00t. (this short time frame factored into the deliberation so this worked out well.)

We go on upstairs and have two choices. I don’t remember the choices but I believed to the right was Minerals, etc. and the left was Paleontology, etc. With a small window, I elected right. We pass this behemoth of a a pretty rock:

Right into the Dinosaur room. Have you ever had that fracture of a memory, of being somewhere but you’re not sure where? Possibly, has your brain gone on to just place it where you believed it should go? Interestingly enough recently I have been thinking about this place I saw the giant Allosaurus  and woolly mammoth skeletons in real life. I had always just assumed it was a Dinosaur museum of some sort, probably down south, even possibly at Thanksgiving Point. Well....

Apparently I went on a field trip at some point to this museum. These are the things that burned into my memory. Well these and a wall downstairs that I felt weird about taking a picture of, because there was some sort of show going on in front of it. I saw these skeleton replicas and got so excited I ran across the room giggling like a school girl. Probably almost exactly as I did 15 - 20 odd years ago when I originally came here.




We continued down the Dinosaur exhibit gawking at the various fossils, and fossil replicas. Touching all we were aloud to touch (and then some.. cough) all 5 of us were running around this area like little 5 year olds. I know this is entirely nerdy, but it is amazing what a museum will pull out of your brain.

We played around with the seismic area, recreated our own earthquakes, and put on the 3d specs to look at the Wasatch Front in 3d. We played with a geiger-meter. We then skimmed through the minerals and stones etc. Oooh, piddy. Spent some time in the local critters in the area, and all enjoyed the stuffed wolf. My random locker of useless facts plopped out fact: Wolves have been spotted in Utah for the first time since the 30’s. The faceplate in front of the stuffed wolf confirmed the latter half of my story. (if your interested KSL confirms the former half)

We then entered the Native American exhibit. Which was cool. Apparently so cool it covered 2 floors of the building. (I imagine different time frames) anyway, the upper portion had some recreation huts etc. As we we navigating the curvy corridor there was a hut with a person in front of it. We all assumed part of the display.. until it moved. I screamed a little, because well, quiet museum, and something moved that I didn’t think should have. Seriously, do NOT go to the museum wearing a plain colored long cloak. It spooks the other patrons!

We then went downstairs into the extended Native American section. Here are some cool recreations of petroglyphs.








Our journey continued into the History of Birds or wetlands, or something area. This place was not that great. Woooo birds. Then there was a wolf so I looked at that for a while. I turned around and saw THIS.



Okay seriously this time I screamed, and clutched my heart, almost dropped to the floor. WHAT THE HELL??? This thing looks likes some of the scariest things in horror movies. This looks like the stuff of nightmares. This... this just aint right. Apparently it is a goose decoy suit of some sort. Seriously… I had nightmares about it that night.