Site and Address
Utah Museum of Natural History
1390 East Presidents Circle, Salt Lake City, Utah, 84112-0050
www.umnh.utah.edu
(801) 581-5567

Date of Visit: 31 March 2007

Hours
Monday - Saturday: 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM
Sunday: Noon to 5:00 PM
Sunday hours on Martin Luther King Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Friday after Thanksgiving
Closed Easter, Independence Day, Pioneer Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day

Admission
Adults: $6.00
Children 3-12: $3.50
Seniors 62+: $3.50
Free for University of Utah students and staff Other students (with ID): $3.50 Annual membership is available (and applies to over 280 other science centers)

Travel Notes
Salt Lake City is a six-hour drive from Boise
We passed museums in Ogden and a geology display at the last rest stop in Idaho

Site Notes
There are skeletons of mammals on display as you enter the museum. A room is set aside specifically for Native American anthropology that contained artifacts, rock art (petroglyphs), and dioramas. There's another room where volunteers clean dinosaur fossils. Not only can you look in on this room, you can enter it for a tour. There is also a children's play area next to the bone cleaning lab. There are rock cabinets displaying over 100 rock and mineral samples. Next to the rock cabinets is a small walk-in model of a mine (watch your head). The biology hall has stuffed animals and bones of amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. The assembled dinosaur fossils are of Utah-found dinosaurs. The T-rex skull is surprisingly large. The seismograph display lets you see the effects of your jumping on the floor. There is also a display of how energy is extracted from the earth in the form of gas, oil, coal, and uranium.

The museum does not have a cafeteria or vending machines.

There’s a gift shop with items like kachina dolls, animal figurines, plush toys, books, hiking maps, minerals, jewelry, bird feeders, nature guides (bugs, flowers, etc), wind chimes, pottery (Native American style), and clothing (t-shirts and hats).

Paul’s Favorite
I was impressed with the Working Paleo Lab. The volunteers inside are obivsously excited with what they're doing. To volunteer inside the lab you must first complete the museum's class. Rachel and I watched a plaster cast being cut open and mudstone being removed from fossilized dinosaur bones. Man, I wished I lived in Salt Lake City, I'd volunteer to work in this lab in an instant!

Rachel’s Favorite
The paleontology lab was also my favorite, for the reasons Paul stated. The coolest part of this museum is that the dinosaurs displayed are found within the state and anyone interested can help prepare the dinosaurs for display.