Glen Rose, Texas: Dinosaur Valley State Park

Big dino statues from the 1964 NY World's Fair stand near a riverbed full of authentic dinosaur footprints.

There are multiple track (footprint) sites in the riverbed within the park; I visited only one site. That site was roped off, so "wading amongst the prints" is no longer allowed. But a park ranger periodically gives detailed talks at (or near) those footprints.

The Park is not fully handicapped-accessible. One large block of footprints was relocated from the riverbed and is on display near the entrance station.

After sending a "Vague Recollection" about Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose, I decided to take a trip there to see what was what. I'm happy to report that the park is pretty much as I remember it, though guided tours don't seem to be offered any longer. There are lots of prints, the tail-mark I remembered, and the life-sized concrete dinosaurs. Admission is $5.00 per person for a day visit, more for camping. There's also a souvenir shop that sells some pretty nifty stuff, including plastic casts of some of the dinosaur footprints.

Some folks were out wading amongst the prints in the river while we were there, as well, so evidently that's still allowed. Pretty neat!

On the way to the park, we saw (but did not visit) the Creation Evidence Museum, which claims to have human footprints preserved next to dinosaur footprints, some dinosaur bones on display, and an iron hammer preserved in stone. Though when we drove past (a couple of weeks ago), the museum was still housed in a trailer, a new structure was being built next to it -- new museum facilities, we presume.

Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose not only has lots of genuine dinosaur footprints (preserved in the bed of the Paluxy River), but two life-sized cement dinosaurs - a T. Rex-type and a Brontosaurus-type - as well.

When I was a little kid in the early 70's, you could wade and swim in part of the river, right in with some of the tracks, which I thought was pretty neat. The park offered all sorts of camping and some guided tours of one of the main footprint areas, where a meat-eating dinosaur evidently chased a plant-eating one (this includes a mark where the meat-eater lost its balance and fell on its butt).