Fossils are cool, I think everyone can agree on that. But fossils are found in the visitors center of many different National Parks sites. So I had never been all that interested in driving out to Vernal, Utah to see Dinosaur National Monument. Until I got there and found out more about the Quarry Exhibit Hall, the main feature of the whole park.

How to Get to the Quarry Exhibit Hall

The Quarry Exhibit Hall is not in the main the visitor center of Dinosaur National Monument, but it is worth stopping at the visitor center first to get yourself oriented to the park, then go up to the Quarry Exhibit Hall.

When leaving the visitor center parking lot you make a tight lefthand turn (before you reach the stop sign) onto a road that will take you up a hill. The road will wrap around to the parking lot of the Quarry Exhibit Hall. This parking lot is fairly big, but during the summer when large numbers of people are visiting it can fill up and they run a shuttle service up to the hall from the visitor center.

If you can take the shuttle up that is probably the best choice, you can then hike the Fossil Discovery Trail to take you back to the visitor center.

What You Will See at the Quarry Exhibit Hall

The Quarry Exhibit Hall is really quite impressive. It is a building build around a partially excavated mountain exposing hundreds of fossils to your view.

I really don’t know if there is any place else in the world that you can get an experience like this. One side of the building is the wall of fossils, the other wall has exhibits explaining more about fossils and how this huge repository likely came to be.

There are two levels to the hall so that you can get great views of all the fossils. You can get a guide book to the quarry for a $1 donation.

Sum Up

The Quarry Exhibit Hall is why you come to Dinosaur National Monument. While other aspects of the monument might be fun like hiking and viewing petroglyphs, this is really the reason to come here. It is very impressive. Dinosaur enthusiasts will especially coming here.

With the recent fee increases getting in to Dinosaur National Monument is now $25 dollars a vehicle. Of course if you have a National Parks pass it is free. Restrooms and picnic areas are located at the visitor center.