Travel Itineraries

Museums, Picnics, and Walking with the Dinosaurs

History Lovers' Leisure Tour

DAY ONE
7:30 am - 8:30 am	Breakfast in either Cañon City, Colorado
9:15 am - 11:30 am	Take a walk with the dinosaurs. Garden Park Fossil Area, located just north of Cañon City on Shelf Road, is a 3,600-acre area that has been producing significant dinosaur fossils for nearly 125 years. Most of the Jurassic dinosaurs on display at Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History are from this area. Three Stegosaurus skeletons, including Colorado’s state fossil, are from this area.
11:30 pm - 12:30 pm	Lunch in historic downtown Cañon City, Colorado
12:30 pm - 5:00 pm	For a fun and educational afternoon, explore some of our museums. The Museum of Colorado Prisons is the actual site of the state’s first women’s prison. The Royal Gorge Regional Museum and History Center is housed in the city’s original 1920s municipal building. The rich history of the Royal Gorge Region can be explored here and the History Center is a genealogy destination with information on over 4,000 regional families. In 2013, the delicate dinosaur casts, the hefty bones and a large petrified tree previously on display at the former Dinosaur Depot Museum migrated to a new home at the Regional Museum. They have been tenderly situated at the Royal Gorge Regional History Center at 612 Royal Gorge Blvd., Cañon City.