Missouri Institute of Natural Science, Springfield

We had a great adventure today at the museum! We loved Henry the triceratops! And my son who is a Dino enthusiast loved the facts and wanted to read all the things! We did walk up to the “dig site” came unprepared and there wasn’t a clear place to dig, the others up there were using hammers with rocks… I may have missed the “instructions” somewhere or Maybe that is the idea, to go break rocks? Take water/sunscreen It is exposed with little shade. We spent most our time in the museum and reading the children’s books, we’ll be back! Thanks for the experience!

Staff greats you at the door and is very friendly and helpful if you need them to be, but otherwise backs off and let's you just experience the place - that's a great harmony of customer experience! The triceratops is the main feature walking in and all the kids love triceratops! The "woolly mammoth" in the other room (I can't recall if it was a mastadon) was another that my boy loved. We really enjoyed just looking at the bones and reading about the collections. We also were told we could do a short hike in their back woods and it comes to a place where you can dig for "fossils"; it was pretty muddy that day but of course the boys don't mind. We looked and found a few of those "Cheerio" looking "fossils" and they allow you to keep it if it fits in a ziplock baggie. Very fun place, definitely worth it for the NO ADMISSION FEE (we bought stuff and donated anyway because it was really neat!). We'd probably visit again to see how they are progressing on the "ceratops" and what new things they add.