Dinosaur State Park and Arboretum Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids Dinosaur State Park and Arboretum
The park's geodesic dome
Dinosaur State Park and Arboretum Location in Connecticut
Location	Rocky Hill, Connecticut, United States
Area	80 acres (32 ha)
Elevation	187 ft (57 m)
Designation	Connecticut state park
Established	1968
Administrator	Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
Website	Dinosaur State Park
U.S. National Natural Landmark
Designated:	April 1968

Dinosaur State Park and Arboretum is a special park in Rocky Hill, Connecticut. It's a place where you can see one of the biggest collections of dinosaur footprints in North America! This park covers 80 acres and protects amazing fossil tracks. These tracks are pressed into sandstone rock. They are from the early Jurassic period, which was about 200 million years ago. The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection takes care of the park.

Discovering the Dinosaurs
What You Can See at the Park
Images for kids
See also

Discovering the Dinosaurs

The amazing dinosaur tracks at Rocky Hill were found in 1966. A person operating a bulldozer saw them while digging for a new state building. This discovery added to many other fossil finds in the Connecticut Valley. The park officially opened as Dinosaur State Park in 1968. That same year, the 7-acre area with the tracks became a Registered National Landmark. This means it's a very important historical site.

What You Can See at the Park

The Dinosaur Dome

The park has a huge, round building called a geodesic dome. It covers about 55,000 square feet. Inside, you can see around 500 dinosaur footprints! Another 1,500 tracks are still buried to keep them safe.

The rock layer holding these tracks is called the East Berlin Formation. It was once a sandy lakeshore over 200 million years ago. The biggest and most common footprints are called Eubrontes. A geologist named Edward Hitchcock gave them this name. These tracks were likely made by a meat-eating dinosaur similar to a Dilophosaurus. The Eubrontes tracks are about 10 to 16 inches long. They are spaced about 3.5 to 4.5 feet apart.

Close-up of Eubrontes prints from Dinosaur State Park

Inside the dome, you'll also find life-sized models of plants and creatures. These models show what the Triassic and Jurassic periods looked like. There are also fun, interactive displays. You can see how the tracks were found in 1966. The discovery room has live animals like a blue-tongued skink and a ball python. You can also do dinosaur-themed arts and crafts. Other fossil tracks from the Connecticut Valley are on display too. These include large, four-toed Otozoum tracks. You can even see skin impressions on some of them!

The Arboretum

The park also has an arboretum, which is like a tree garden. It has two miles of trails. Along these trails, you can see about 250 different types of cone-bearing trees. There are collections of arborvitae, chamaecyparis, ginkgo, juniper, katsura, pine, sequoia, and magnolia. Some rare trees include the evergreen southern magnolia and the monkey puzzle tree. The arboretum tries to grow plants from the Mesozoic era. This is the time when dinosaurs lived. They want to show as many of these ancient plant families as the New England climate allows.

Fun Activities and Events

Dinosaur State Park offers many exciting things to do. You can watch educational films and go on guided walks along the trails. There are also special talks about dinosaurs and nature.

When the weather is warm, you can even make your own dinosaur footprint casts! You can also try mining for gems and fossils. Every August, the park celebrates Dinosaur State Park Day. This special day has games, arts and crafts, and live music.

A stone path leads to the dome museum. This path has a timeline showing how Earth has changed over millions of years. From May to October, you can see an outdoor exhibit. It teaches you how paleontologists, who study fossils, do their work. The park also has two and a half miles of hiking trails for you to explore.