Exciting Update!!
The Dino Walk is back for 2023!! The event will officially be held on September 22-23, 2023. Tickets go on sale June 29th at 8:30 AM through Eventbrite only and will sell out.
For the quickest info, visit their facebook page here.
Over the past 6 years, the Museum of Culpeper History has held a Dino Walk event at Luck Stone Quarry in Culpeper, Virginia. They proclaim these dinosaur tracks as the largest collection ever discovered in North America. These particular dinosaurs were part of the early Triassic period beginning more than 215 million years ago. They were first discovered at the bottom of the quarry back in 1989.
In 2019, the event was in July! They have hourly time slots for cars to enter between 8 AM and 12 Noon. We arrived for the 10 AM tour. We didn’t want to try to rush our kids out the door to get there at 8 AM, and a July Noon in VA is just too hot! We remembered to bring along our ticket (Now $35 for one regular sized car or SUV with all occupants), got it scanned at the entrance and got our car in the staging lineup.
One of the most exciting parts of this adventure was driving down to the bottom of the quarry. It is an interesting perspective that you wouldn’t normally get to experience unless you work in a quarry. There were quite a few beautiful, flowing American Flags displayed at the top. We got to the bottom and it was beautiful! There were strikingly colored ponds and beautiful rock walls and formations everywhere.
On to the main event! It only took a few minutes to drive to the bottom. You have about 40 minutes to walk around and look at the tracks, ask questions and enjoy the scenery.
They had many tracks circled with blue chalk paint so we didn’t have to do much hunting for them. There were a few that we found unmarked which was exciting! The museum volunteers supplied water guns to fill using a buckets of water they had sitting out. It didn’t work out well for us. The guns were hard to fill and the buckets were filled with too many hands. That’s alright though! The idea was to spray the tracks to get a better view of the depth and shape. It would be a good idea to bring your own filled water guns if you want to wet the tracks to see them that way.
I found this unique event on Facebook. Social media can be strange. Sometimes it seems like they can hear our conversations or base advertisements off of stuff that we were sure we only said in our heads. Then sometimes it shares awesome events that you may not know existed!
While you are in the area, check out these other great things to do!
Unforgettable Natural Wonders To See In The Commonwealth of Virginia
Virginia is for lovers! It is also for history buffs, outdoor enthusiasts, wine connoisseurs and more. From the mountains to the sea, this beautiful state
Great Family Hikes At Shenandoah National Park
As the seasons change, we are often reminded how lucky we are to live in a place that has such beauty at our doorstep. Living
What a cool experience! Woow…bring a water gun to inspect the tracks better…Who would have thought of that! 🙂 Thanks for the tip! Sounds like an awesome time! 🙂
Wow! I’ve never heard of this but it looks super fun. Thanks for telling me about it!
Looks like a great place to visit! The scenery looks amazing!
It looks like something I would love to do! Great post!
My boys would have a BLAST doing this! How exciting to see real dinosaur tracks!
It was really hard to believe…. but there they were! haha!
What a fun and unique experience. Who knew Virginia had dinosaurs…but I suppose they were everywhere at one time. Love this type of hands-on learning especially for kids…makes it so memorable.
Crazy. My first thought is…if they are real dinosaur prints wouldn’t they preserve them better and not have people walking all around and possibly on them? Looks beautiful and a fun way to spend the afternoon.
I wondered that too when I first read about this! Thankfully, they only allow this one day a year for about 2 hours total! There are only a very small number of people allowed at a time so that keeps it very open and spacious too! 🙂
What a fun place to visit especially if you are into dinosaurs. I know my kids would love it.
I didn’t think I was that into dinosaurs until I went, ha!
How neat is that! Never heard of it. Just told hubby, as we are both big on hiking neat places. Another added to the bucket list.
I live in the DC area and have never heard of this. We are so going to check it out – thanks for sharing!!
Follow The Museum of Culpeper History on Facebook! They put the dates out for ticket sales pretty early!
This is so cool! What a great experience. My 3 boys would absolutely love an adventure like this!
Thanks for sharing about the dino walk. I had no idea, but it’s a perfect reason to go back to VA!
I’ve been to a dinosaur museum, but it didn’t have this fun dino walk! It looks like a cool setting too!
This is wonderful, I love learning about places from blog, social media too. Thank you for the bonus about the pass.
Cool. Never seen anything about this place before. Added to the list!
Cool, never knew this existed. How amazing to explore Dinosaurs this way. Will have to check it out next time in VA
What a great experience to offer! This would be perfect for my dino loving nephew. Thank you for sharing!
How neat is that! I didn’t know there was any evidence of dinosaurs in North America. That must have been a very cool experience.
That would be really cool to see!!
What a cool experience for the kids! I have never heard of it!
That looks like a really cool event! How neat to see dinosaur tracks like that.
Wow this is super cool! I’d never heard of this before!
What a fun event. My ancestors are from Culpeper, VA but I have never been!
Awesome! It’s a beautiful area 🙂
Oh my gosh! I am going to go research this right now for this year!
Keep your eyes peeled over the next couple weeks. Last year tickets went on sale March 1st and sold out immediately! 🙂
So fun! We’ve checked out dinosaur tracks here in Colorado and Utah, but never over on your end of the country. And how awesome that you heard about it on social media! I agree, it is such a bizzare mixed bag of good and bad.
What an interesting event! I bet the kids loved that.
How fun!! It’s gorgeous down there too!!
Ah I wish this was closer to us here in California – my kids would love it.
Talk about history coming to life. This is so cool! Thank you for sharing.
The Dino walk looks like a fun experience
We’ve never heard of this but it sounds amazing and super fun! Thank you for sharing.
This is cool – I didn’t know such a thing existed! Thanks for sharing.
What a unique place to spend some time with little ones!
My oldest was obsessed with dinosaurs when he was little. He would have loved this place. It looks cool. Beautiful photos as well.
My two year old dinosaur lover would love this!
That’s really cool. I didn’t know this event or place existed. Thanks for sharing your experience and your beautiful photos! That water is just gorgeous!
This looks like a cool event! I bet it does sell out really fast!
NO WAY!!! WE WERE JUST HTERE AND I AM 100% GOING BACK FOR THIS
Mark your calendar! It is in September this year and tickets go on sale June 1st!
Ohmygosh, my son would love this so much
Oh my goodness my kids would love this! Thank you for the information!
This is the kind of adventure or place my boys would have loved to visit when they were younger. I’ll have to keep it in mind for future trips up that way.
That sounds like a great adventure for rock, fossil, and history lovers. I also had to think how many times the brother or sister got sprayed instead of the dino print…lol… which would make this extra fun for kids.