Museums for teens in Utah
Places with a real story or something to figure out: aircraft, mines, science, art and the Olympics.
100 museums on this list, checked against their own websites in October 2026.
Natural History Museum of Utah
Twelve permanent exhibitions over four levels, from the Past Worlds dinosaur hall to gems and minerals, the Great Salt Lake and Utah's First Peoples.
This Is The Place Heritage Park
More than 450 acres, with a Heritage Village of settler homes and shops, costumed interpreters, a replica train and a pony carousel.
Utah Museum of Fine Arts
The University of Utah's art museum, with its permanent collection galleries on campus and a run of changing shows.
By region
Salt Lake County 16
- Rio Tinto Kennecott Bingham Canyon Mine Visitor ExperienceHerriman MiningA self-guided visit to an overlook above the active Bingham Canyon Mine pit, reached by a shuttle from the parking area that runs every 30 minutes. At the overlook, two levels of exhibits explain how the mine works and how ore is refined into copper, and large equipment such as a haul truck bed and motor sits on display. Tickets are limited and many days sell out, so book online first; proceeds go to the Kennecott Charitable Foundation.
- Chase Home Museum of Utah Folk ArtSalt Lake City Art FreeThe state's folk art collection lives in an old farmhouse in the middle of Liberty Park, with more than 450 pieces made by Utah's many communities. Galleries cover Native American ancestral and contemporary work, ceramics and occupational crafts, and the current show, Once Upon a Tree, looks at wood and paper and runs through January 9, 2027. It pairs well with a park walk.
- Church History MuseumSalt Lake City History FreeThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints runs this free museum on West Temple, telling the faith's history through art and artifacts. The main floor exhibit, The Heavens Are Opened, covers early Church history with film, documents and artifacts, and the second floor holds a children's exhibit and temporary exhibits. Every three years the museum hosts and exhibits a theme-based art competition for Latter-day Saint artists from around the world.
- Clark PlanetariumSalt Lake City Science FreeSalt Lake County's planetarium at The Gateway has more than 10,000 square feet of hands-on space exhibits you can wander for free. The shows cost extra: dome films in the Hansen Dome Theatre, big-screen films in the Northrop Grumman IMAX Theatre, and laser shows.
- Gilgal Sculpture GardenSalt Lake City Art FreeThomas Battersby Child Jr. made this garden in the mid twentieth century, tucked in the middle of a Salt Lake City block behind houses and businesses, and it is now a city park. It holds 12 of his original sculptures, including the Sphinx and Elijah's Cave, plus more than 70 stones engraved with scripture, poems and literary texts. Admission is free, and walking tour brochures are on site.
- Land Cruiser Heritage MuseumSalt Lake City Trains and carsA museum devoted to one truck, the Toyota Land Cruiser, laid out by generation from the 55 and 60 series through the 70s, 100s and 200s, plus Prados, related 'cousin' vehicles and engine displays. Specific pieces include a 1979 FJ56 fire truck and a 1988 FJ62/HZJ79 hybrid. No appointment needed.
- Museum of UtahSalt Lake City History FreeUtah's first state history museum opened on the Capitol complex, with four permanent galleries (Becoming, Connecting, Building and Inspiring Utah) that tell the state's story through objects and art. The Mormon Meteor III land speed car is on display, along with the Alice Merrill Horne Collection of more than 2,000 artworks. Admission is free, and the temporary show The Past is Personal runs through spring 2027.
- Natural History Museum of UtahSalt Lake City ScienceThe state's natural history museum, housed in the Rio Tinto Center, with twelve permanent exhibitions over four levels. Past Worlds holds the dinosaurs, a Ceratosaurus fossil is on display, and other halls cover gems and minerals, the Great Salt Lake and Utah's First Peoples.
- Pioneer Memorial MuseumSalt Lake City Pioneer FreeThe Daughters of Utah Pioneers museum just west of the Capitol packs four floors and a carriage house with the belongings of Utah's early settlers, from homemade tools and painted pine furniture to pianos and crystal hauled across the plains. The carriage house holds full-size vehicles, including a Conestoga wagon, a stagecoach and a 1902 fire engine. Admission is free, so it works as an easy weekday stop when you are near Capitol Hill.
- This Is The Place Heritage ParkSalt Lake City PioneerA state park of more than 450 acres where Heritage Village has settler homes and shops, costumed interpreters and hands-on pioneer activities, plus a replica train, a pony carousel and farm animals. The grounds also hold the This Is The Place Monument, dedicated in 1947, the Walk of Pioneer Faiths and the Pioneer Children's Memorial. Entering the park is free; the village experiences need a paid pass.
- Tracy AviarySalt Lake City Animals and gardensTracy Aviary covers eight acres of Liberty Park with more than 300 birds from around the world, many of them endangered or extinct in the wild, among themed exhibits and botanical gardens. Visits include interactive bird shows, keeper demonstrations, roaming animal encounters and more than a dozen nature play spots for kids. A second site, the Nature Center at Pia Okwai, is at 3310 South 1000 West in South Salt Lake.
- Utah Museum of Fine ArtsSalt Lake City ArtThe University of Utah's art museum, in the Marcia and John Price Museum Building on campus. Current shows include For the Future, a look at 25 years of the museum's collecting, and Onishi Yasuaki's Stone on Boundary, with the salt 18 series bringing Amor Munoz in late October.
- Utah Sports Hall of Fame MuseumSalt Lake City History FreeA small free museum on the mall level at City Creek, north of Nordstrom, that tells the stories of Utah Sports Hall of Fame inductees. It also covers the high school and college coaches, game officials and distinguished service honorees the foundation recognizes. It opened in 2019, and there is an online virtual tour.
- Utah State CapitolSalt Lake City HistoryThe capitol building carries a changing set of exhibits across its floors. Through the end of 2026 that includes a bicentennial quilt display, an Osmond family exhibit and a show on the Revolution's writing, plus standing displays on the state flag, the Capitol Lions and Utah's territorial governors. Guided tours on weekdays cover the building's history and architecture, Utah history and how government works, and need a reservation.
- Utah's Hogle ZooSalt Lake City Animals and gardensHogle Zoo on Sunnyside Avenue keeps more than 150 species across zones like African Savanna, Primate Forest, Great Apes, Asian Highlands, Rocky Shores and Wild Utah. Current residents include snow leopard siblings Pavlova and Bhutan, a baby gorilla named Addo and a newly arrived red panda, William. It is a nonprofit and has been accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums since 1979.
- West Valley Cultural Celebration CenterWest Valley City Art FreeThe Utah Cultural Celebration Center in West Valley City runs free galleries, with the Pilar Pobil Celebration Gallery as its main space. The Bridge, Plaza and Crescent galleries show local artists, traveling exhibits and educational displays, and most of the work there is for sale. Through October 14 it has the Utah Women Artists Exhibition 2026 and Plein Air Riverfest, paintings made at the 2026 Get to the River Festival.
Davis, Weber and Morgan 10
- Bountiful Davis Art CenterBountiful Art FreeA community art center on Bountiful's Main Street with rotating shows in its Main, Front and Annex galleries, free to visit. It hosts juried exhibitions such as the Statewide Emerging Artists' Annual and runs paid classes in pottery, watercolor and figure drawing.
- Pioneer Village at LagoonFarmington PioneerA late 1800s frontier town inside Lagoon, built from historic structures that include an 1853 rock chapel moved from Coalville, a one-room schoolhouse, a print shop and a cobbler shop. The Carriage Hall holds turn-of-the-century wheeled vehicles, and a separate collection covers small arms from slingshots and crossbows to cannons. It started as a private collection in 1938 and moved to Lagoon in 1976, so a day at the park doubles as a walk through old Utah.
- Hill Aerospace MuseumHill Air Force Base Military FreeMore than 70 historic aircraft and aerospace vehicles at a museum just off base by the North/Roy Gate, so no base pass is needed. The collection includes a B-17, an SR-71 Blackbird and the F-117 stealth fighter, and there are flight simulators and scavenger hunts. The museum suggests planning one to two hours.
- Browning-Kimball Classic Car Museum (Union Station)Ogden HistoryOne of four museums inside Ogden's Union Station, this one holds early automobiles running from a 1901 single-cylinder Oldsmobile to a 1930 sixteen-cylinder Cadillac. Matt and Barbara Browning began collecting in 1971 with a 1930 Packard, dedicated the museum here in 1981, and nine of their cars were donated to Ogden City. One ticket covers the railroad, firearms, car and cowboy museums in the building.
- George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park and Elizabeth Stewart Natural History MuseumOgden DinosaursAn 8.5-acre park in Ogden with an outdoor sculpture park of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures plus three indoor museums. The Stewart Museum of Paleontology has dinosaur skeletons and reconstructed prehistoric habitats, the Ogden Natural History Museum covers fossils, rocks and minerals, and the Gem and Mineral Museum shows gemstones and crystals from around the world. A new inclusive dinosaur playground is open.
- John M. Browning Firearms Museum (Union Station)Ogden HistoryA museum inside Ogden's Union Station about inventor John M. Browning, with original prototypes he designed in Ogden alongside models made by Winchester, Remington and Colt. It also covers the Browning Automatic Rifle and the work of his father, son and grandson, four generations of Browning inventors, plus an exhibit of miniature guns showing how firearms developed. One ticket covers this and the railroad, classic car and cowboy and western heritage museums in the same building.
- Mary Elizabeth Dee Shaw GalleryOgden Art FreeWeber State University's art gallery sits inside the Ethel Wattis Kimball Visual Arts Center on the Ogden campus and runs a rotating lineup of exhibitions across many media. It closes in summer and over university breaks, so plan around the school calendar.
- Museums at Union StationOgden Trains and carsOgden's historic train depot holds four museums under one ticket: the Utah State Railroad Museum, the John M. Browning Firearms Museum, the Browning-Kimball Classic Car Museum and the Utah State Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. It also has the Wattis-Dumke Model Railroad and two galleries, the Gallery at the Station and the Myra Powell Gallery, that put up new exhibits each month.
- Ott PlanetariumOgden Science FreeWeber State's planetarium is a thirty foot, sixty seat full-dome theater with a list of more than twenty shows, from dark matter to a photon's trip from a distant star to someone's retina. The public open hours are free. The university's public observatory has nine pier-mounted telescopes and holds free star parties about once a month.
- Utah State Railroad Museum (Union Station)Ogden Trains and carsHoused at Ogden's Union Station, with Union Pacific Northern 833 and the X-26 turbine engine, plus a restored Red Cross hospital car, a railroad post office car and the 2002 Olympic Winter Games cauldron car. Indoors, the Wattis-Dumke model railroad follows the transcontinental line past spots like the Lucin Trestle and Weber Canyon. One ticket also covers the Browning firearms, classic car and cowboy and western heritage museums in the same building.
Utah County 12
- The Crandall Printing MuseumAlpine HistoryA hands-on printing museum in Alpine, open by appointment for tours of about an hour. Visitors pick a Gutenberg tour (type casting and the 42-line Bible), a Ben Franklin tour that ends with a printed copy of the Declaration of Independence to keep, or a Book of Mormon tour on Acorn press printing and book binding. The collection runs from a 1380 Book of Hours page to a 1913 Linotype.
- Timpanogos Cave National Monument Visitor CenterAmerican Fork Science FreeThe National Park Service visitor center in American Fork Canyon has exhibits, a man-made cave and free Junior Ranger booklets. There is no entrance fee to visit, but the cave tours need a paid ticket bought ahead on recreation.gov. The park's own pages give the season as May through mid October for the visitor center and late May to early or mid October for tours, so by mid October call 801-756-5239 before driving up.
- Camp Floyd / Stagecoach Inn State Park and MuseumFairfield MilitaryThe U.S. Army set up Camp Floyd near Fairfield in 1858 and stayed three years before the troops were reassigned for the Civil War. The state park covers the years when soldiers, Mormon pioneers, stagecoach travelers and Pony Express riders met here, with a museum, three historic structures including the Stagecoach Inn, and a cemetery. Kids can do the Junior Ranger program, and the park holds musket and cannon reenactments.
- Butterfly BiosphereLehi ScienceThanksgiving Point's insect attraction. In the Beverley Taylor Sorenson Butterfly Conservatory, more than a thousand live butterflies from around the world fly freely, and the Discovery Zone holds hundreds of live insects plus a permanent colony of 120,000 leafcutter ants.
- Museum of Ancient LifeLehi DinosaursNow called the Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life, this is Thanksgiving Point's dinosaur hall, with 60 complete mounted skeletons and more than 50 hands-on exhibits. The newer Need for Speed exhibit sets Jurassic predators like Ceratosaurus and Tanycolagreus side by side, and in the lab you can watch paleontologists and volunteers dig out a 150-million-year-old Barosaurus. Tickets are timed, so buying ahead is the move.
- Thanksgiving PointLehi OtherA nonprofit in Lehi that runs seven attractions over two campuses, including the Mountain America Museum of Ancient Life, the Museum of Natural Curiosity, the Butterfly Biosphere, Ashton Gardens and Curiosity Farms. The dinosaur museum has 60 complete dinosaur skeletons and more than 50 hands-on exhibits, and visitors can watch paleontologists and volunteers uncover a 150 million year old Barosaurus. Admission is ticketed, and dinosaur museum tickets are timed, so buy ahead.
- UVU Museum of ArtOrem Art FreeUtah Valley University's art museum, now in the Lakemount building on 1800 South in Orem, with free admission and free parking in the lot above the building. Through November 21, 2026 it shows the Faculty Art Exhibition, with work by 44 UVU art and design faculty, and through January 9, 2027 a student-curated show of abstract work from the permanent collection.
- BYU Bean Life Science MuseumProvo History FreeBYU's Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum covers living things from bacteria to whales, with galleries on evolution, endangered species, freshwater and ocean life, African wildlife and the world's waterfowl and pheasants. Admission is free.
- BYU Museum of ArtProvo Art FreeIts shows mix American art and sacred art from the collection with visiting exhibitions; this fall that includes Gordon Parks photographs and a show on Lorenzo Ghiberti's Baptistery Doors. There is also a sculpture garden.
- BYU Museum of PaleontologyProvo Dinosaurs FreeBYU's fossil museum says it holds one of the largest dinosaur collections in the world, and it shares a front parking lot with LaVell Edwards Stadium. Exhibits include Kosmoceratops, Supersaurus and Camarasaurus vertebrae, the pterosaur Caelestiventus hanseni from the Saints and Sinners Quarry, and displays on collecting fossils and lab tools.
- BYU Museum of Peoples and CulturesProvo Ancient peoplesBYU's anthropology museum holds more than a million artifacts from around the world and puts a rotating handful of them on display. A permanent gallery traces who has lived in Utah Valley, from Archaic and Fremont peoples to the Ute and later settlers. Current shows cover basketry around the world and the kava bowls of Pacific Island communities.
- Springville Museum of ArtSpringville Art FreeA free art museum whose collection began in 1903, when artists Cyrus Dallin and John Hafen donated Paul Revere and Mountain Stream. It now holds more than 2,700 works, over 2,000 of them Utah art from pioneer times to today, plus what it calls the largest public collection of twentieth-century Russian and Soviet art in the western United States. The building was dedicated in 1937, and the Sam and Diane Stewart Sculpture Garden was dedicated in 2009.
Park City and Heber 6
- Commemorative Air Force Utah Wing MuseumHeber City MilitaryA World War II aviation museum at Russ McDonald Field in Heber, run by the all-volunteer Utah Wing of the Commemorative Air Force, which formed in the mid-1980s around a Boeing N2S Stearman. It shows Allied uniforms, plus armament, photographs, weapons and equipment from both Allied and Axis countries.
- Alf Engen Ski MuseumPark City History FreeA free ski museum in the Joe Quinney Winter Sports Center at Utah Olympic Park that covers how the Intermountain region became a winter sports hub. The same complex holds the Intermountain Ski Hall of Fame, the PSIA Intermountain Division Hall of Fame and the Eccles 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Museum.
- Eccles Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games MuseumPark City History FreeThe 2002 Winter Games museum, in the building that served as the media center during those Olympics. It covers every sport from luge and skeleton to curling, the Paralympics, the torch relay and the volunteers, and it has started collecting for the 2034 Games. Entry is free and it shares the building with the Alf Engen Ski Museum.
- Kimball Art CenterPark City Art FreePark City's nonprofit art center, with free rotating gallery exhibitions plus classes, camps and artist talks. The current show, Between the Lines, runs through January 3, 2027, and receptions and panel discussions go along with each exhibition.
- Park City MuseumPark City HistoryThe town history museum on Main Street, covering Park City's silver mining years through its ski town era. You start by climbing aboard a passenger train car for an intro film, then work down through the floors to the old jail, with a family detective activity for kids. The Tozer Gallery runs changing shows, currently Park City Loves a Parade.
- Swaner Preserve and EcoCenterPark City SciencePart of Utah State University, the EcoCenter is the visitor building for a 1,200 acre nature preserve at the entrance to Park City. Inside are a wetland-themed climbing wall, a native seed library and an art exhibit; outside are demonstration and pollinator gardens, the Wetland Discovery Trail and a 400 foot pier onto the preserve. A four story tower gives a view for spotting wildlife.
Cache and Box Elder 6
- Brigham City Museum of Art & HistoryBrigham City Art FreeBrigham City's own museum, started in 1970, with a collection of more than 12,000 items covering art, historical artifacts, ephemera, natural history specimens and oral histories. A permanent exhibition covers the town's history, and five to six temporary history and fine art shows rotate through each year; the Development photography competition exhibition runs October 3 to December 4, 2026. Admission is free.
- James V. Hansen Wildlife Education Center, Bear River Migratory Bird RefugeBrigham City ScienceThe refuge's education center, a quarter mile west of I-15 exit 363, has an exhibit hall and shows the refuge film Wings of Thunder. Three short trails start nearby (Wetland Wonders, Bulrush Bridge and Marsh Meander), and a 12 mile auto tour route with an audio tour runs through the refuge, which more than 250 bird species use. The refuge says drought has limited its water this year.
- Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (USU)Logan Art FreeUtah State University's art museum holds over 5,000 works, weighted toward 20th and 21st century American art and art of the American West. Its ceramics collection, which started with more than 400 vessels Nora Eccles Harrison gave along with the building, now tops 1,200 pieces.
- Stokes Nature CenterLogan Animals and gardensA nonprofit nature center in Logan Canyon, established in 1997, and the official educational permittee of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest and the Logan Canyon Children's Forest. It runs Adventures with a Naturalist outings, guided snowshoe and cross-country ski trips, and snowshoe rentals, along with school programs and summer camps.
- USU Museum of AnthropologyLogan History FreeA small anthropology museum in Room 252 of Old Main on Utah State University's Logan campus. USU students conceived and built every exhibit, which look at how human lives change, how people share knowledge and how they make art.
- Golden Spike National Historical ParkPromontory Trains and carsThe spot where the ceremonial last spike of the transcontinental railroad was driven on May 10, 1869, with a visitor center holding exhibits, a theater and a bookstore. Replica locomotives Jupiter and No. 119 are moved out to the Last Spike Site each day to recreate the meeting of the rails, and you can walk or drive fifteen miles of the original grade, including the Big Fill. No fuel or food within 27 miles, so fill up first.
Tooele and the West Desert 2
- Tintic Mining Museum (Tintic Historical Society)Eureka Mining FreeThe Tintic Historical Society, founded in 1973, runs this free museum in a historic railroad depot on Eureka's Main Street. It shows minerals from the district, old mining tools, historic clothing, an antique still, a replica of the Eureka City Courthouse and a multi-level map of the mines. The society has also opened the old City Hall and jail for tours.
- Tooele Valley MuseumTooele History FreeThe Tooele Valley Museum and Historical Park covers more than three acres of the old Tooele Valley Railroad complex, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Locomotive #11 is the centerpiece, a steam engine townspeople kept from being shipped to Salt Lake in 1969. Around it are permanent exhibits on the county's railroad, mining, military history and the International Smelting and Refining Company.
Central Utah 12
- Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur QuarryCleveland DinosaursThe quarry at Jurassic National Monument has produced more than 12,000 fossils from at least 74 animals, and more than three quarters of the bones come from predators such as Allosaurus. The visitor center has over 2,000 square feet of exhibits, including an Allosaurus skeleton mount and replica skulls, and trails head out from it. The dig site is closed for construction for now, and the last 11 miles of road are graded gravel with no drinking water on site.
- Cove Fort Historic SiteCove Fort History FreeIra Hinckley, his brother Arza and local workers built this volcanic rock fort in 1867, halfway between Beaver and Fillmore. Until the early 1880s it served travelers, the Pony Express and telegraph lines, and the families provided lodging and meals and ran a farm, blacksmith shop and small ranch. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints offers free tours led by missionaries; plan an hour to an hour and a half.
- Great Basin MuseumDelta Science FreeDelta's town museum on Main Street (US 6/50) covers the area from the Cambrian seas to the cars of the last century. Cases hold trilobites and other early fossils, snowflake obsidian and geodes from the surrounding desert, Fremont and Paiute artifacts, and pioneer household goods. A restored surrey carriage and vintage automobiles round it out.
- Topaz MuseumDelta HistoryTells the story of Topaz, the World War II camp 16 miles northwest of Delta where Japanese Americans were held from September 1942 to October 1945. The exhibit starts with the racist laws aimed at early Japanese immigrants and follows the mass incarceration and its aftermath, using hundreds of artifacts, photographs and oral histories plus about 150 original artworks. The museum also lays out an 18-stop driving or biking tour.
- Snow College Art GalleryEphraim History FreeSnow College's gallery sits inside the Humanities Building on the Ephraim campus and keeps the college's permanent collection, including the Lund-Wassmer Collection. Each year it shows an Artists in Residence/Works in Progress show and a juried student exhibition, along with a bi-annual faculty show and national solo and group shows.
- Snow College PlanetariumEphraim Science FreeA fulldome planetarium in room 324 of Snow College's Graham Science Center in Ephraim. Shows are free, but tickets must be reserved through Eventbrite; Science Night shows need no reservation.
- Fairview Museum of History and ArtFairview Art FreeA free museum campus in Fairview whose centerpiece is Spirit, a Columbian mammoth skeleton about 15,000 years old dug up in 1988 at Huntington Reservoir, 18 miles east of town. The Heritage Building, Fairview's 1900 elementary school, later served as sculptor Avard Fairbanks's workshop and still holds many of his original plasters, works by woodcarver Lindon Graham and hundreds of pioneer artifacts. The Horizon Building, finished in 1995, adds the Theodore Milton Wassmer art collection, Clark Bronson's wildlife sculpture and painting, and natural history and Native American exhibits.
- Territorial Statehouse State Park MuseumFillmore HistoryUtah's oldest existing government building went up under Brigham Young's direction when Fillmore was planned as the territorial capital. Its south wing was finished by December 1855 and hosted the only full legislative session held there, and the government moved to Salt Lake City in 1858. Inside are Brigham Young's office, pioneer china, textiles and musical instruments, plus a basement with a jail cell, a printing press, military weapons and Native American artifacts; outside are three restored pioneer cabins, an 1867 stone schoolhouse and a rose garden.
- The Jeep Guy MuseumFillmore Trains and carsA family-owned museum in Fillmore with more than 100 Jeeps from 1941 to the present, military and civilian, plus trailers and other artifacts. The owners say they drive the Jeeps rather than just park them, and the museum runs events and trail rides.
- John Wesley Powell River History MuseumGreen River HistoryA Green River museum about river running on the Colorado Plateau, with a Boat Room on how riverboats in the region evolved and a River Runners Hall of Fame that has inducted more than 30 people and groups since 1990. The lower level holds fossil and dinosaur specimens, and other displays cover Green River melons, Range Creek archaeology and southeastern Utah geology. Its current exhibition, Kayak Revolution, opened October 3, 2026 and follows the early kayakers on the plateau's rivers.
- Fremont Indian State Park and MuseumSevier (Clear Creek Canyon) HistoryBuilding Interstate 70 through Clear Creek Canyon uncovered the largest known Fremont village, and this state park preserves what was found, including pottery, baskets and arrowheads. Trails lead to petroglyphs and pictographs, and the park is an International Dark Sky Park. The museum exhibits are closed for renovation with reopening expected in fall 2026, while the visitor center, gift shop, temporary art gallery and outdoor areas stay open.
- Capitol Reef Visitor Center MuseumTorrey Visitor centersCapitol Reef's main visitor center sits below the cliffs called The Castle, with exhibits on the park's human history, plants and animals, and the Waterpocket Fold, a wrinkle in the earth almost 100 miles long. The building is a 1964 to 1965 Mission 66 design by Cecil Doty, and the park also offers a film and a bookstore. The Gifford House Store and Museum in Fruita opens seasonally nearby.
Southern Utah 18
- Big Water Visitor Center Museum, Grand Staircase-EscalanteBig Water Science FreeThe BLM's dinosaur stop for Grand Staircase-Escalante, on Highway 89 about 18 miles northwest of Page, Arizona. A full-length mural shows the Late Cretaceous landscape, and the paleontology and geology exhibits include dinosaur bones from a monument where fourteen new dinosaur species have been identified since 2005.
- Anasazi State Park MuseumBoulder Ancient peoplesThe museum sits on the Coombs Site, an Ancestral Puebloan village lived in from roughly 1050 to 1200, where Puebloan and Fremont ways of life mixed. Inside are artifacts dug from this very ground; outside you can walk part of the excavated village and step into a full-size replica of a six-room dwelling. It pairs well with the drive over Highway 12.
- Bryce Canyon Visitor Center MuseumBryce Visitor centersThe main visitor center in Bryce Canyon National Park, with museum exhibits, the park bookstore and staff on hand to help plan a visit. A 24-minute film, A Song of Seasons, plays on the hour and half hour.
- Frontier Homestead State Park MuseumCedar City HistoryA state park museum next to the Iron County Visitor Center that covers Cedar City's pioneer and early iron industry history. Inside is a large collection of horse-drawn wagons and farm equipment from 1850 to 1920. The grounds hold the Hunter House, Cedar City's oldest remaining brick home, the George Wood cabin, the Deseret School House, a sawmill and a replica blast furnace, with gold panning and rope making for kids.
- Garth and Jerri Frehner Museum of Natural HistoryCedar City Science FreeA free natural history museum on the first floor of Southern Utah University's Science Addition Building, with collections on campus since as early as 1915. It shows large scale taxidermy, rocks and minerals, fossils, insects, shells and herbarium specimens. Its oddest piece is the Dancing Calves, born just north of Cedar City.
- Southern Utah Museum of ArtCedar City Art FreeSouthern Utah University's art museum, in a Brooks + Scarpa building designed after the region's slot canyons. The collection leans on Western landscape painters like Maynard Dixon, Edith Hamlin and Jimmie F. Jones, and has a deep print collection with works by Chagall, Whistler and Kathe Kollwitz. Entry is free, so it's an easy stop on a drive to the parks.
- Escalante Interagency Visitor Center MuseumEscalante Science FreeA visitor center on Highway 12 in Escalante staffed together by the BLM, the National Park Service and the Forest Service. Its exhibit room covers the geology and ecosystem of Grand Staircase-Escalante's nearly one million acres, and a small theater shows the film Traces in Time. Staff also hand out information on the Dixie National Forest and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and there is a covered picnic area out front.
- Kanab Visitor Center, Grand Staircase-Escalante National MonumentKanab Science FreeThe BLM's Kanab office for Grand Staircase-Escalante has interpretive displays built around traces in time, covering the Monument's geology and archaeology. Admission is free, and the front desk hands out self-guided activities, so it works as a first stop before driving into the Monument.
- Little Hollywood MuseumKanab HistoryKanab spent decades as a stand-in for the Old West, and this museum keeps actual sets from the films and TV shows shot nearby. You can walk through the homestead from The Outlaw Josey Wales and see pieces tied to Stagecoach, The Greatest Story Ever Told, Planet of the Apes, The Lone Ranger and Gunsmoke. The sets cost nothing to see, with a suggested donation, and a barbecue place sits on the same lot.
- Moqui CaveKanab ScienceA sandstone cave on Highway 89 about 5.5 miles north of Kanab, run as a museum, where the temperature stays under 65 degrees even in summer. It shows more than 180 dinosaur tracks, most found within 10 to 15 miles, Native American artifacts including about 1,000 arrowheads, and a large fluorescent mineral display 200 feet inside the cave.
- Silver Reef MuseumLeeds HistoryThe museum sits inside the restored Wells Fargo and Company express office and the Wooley, Lund and Judd mercantile next door, two stone buildings left from Silver Reef's 1870s and 1880s mining boom. Inside are artifacts, photographs and papers from the town's silver years, plus displays on the odd geology that put silver in sandstone. Stone ruins of old homes and businesses sit on the grounds around it, so the walk outside is part of the visit.
- Grafton Historic TownsiteRockville History FreeGrafton is a ghost town on the Virgin River, settled in 1859 and finally abandoned by 1944 after decades of floods. Volunteers with the Grafton Heritage Partnership have restored several of its buildings, and you can walk the townsite and its cemetery on your own. Film crews shot scenes for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid here.
- Zion Human History MuseumSpringdale HistoryZion's former Mission 66 visitor center, reopened as a museum in 2002, shows artifacts and archival material from the park's collections about how water shaped the canyon and the people drawn to it. Exhibits cover geology, plants, animals, survival and community, and a park film plays inside. It sits about a mile north of the South Entrance, reachable by car or on foot along the Pa'rus Trail.
- Rosenbruch Wildlife MuseumSt. George ScienceMore than 300 taxidermy animals from around the world are staged in natural habitat scenes at this museum attached to the Dixie Convention Center. Kids get an interactive children's gallery, and there is a separate insect room. An audio tour is listed as coming soon.
- St. George Dinosaur Discovery SiteSt. George DinosaursBuilt over the actual rock surface where dinosaurs walked about 200 million years ago, with an elevated boardwalk that puts you right above the original tracks. Alongside the Grallator and Eubrontes footprints are fossil fish, plant impressions, ripple marks and even raindrop impressions from an Early Jurassic lake. You can watch paleontologists work in the fossil prep lab, and kids get an outdoor dino park with a sandbox.
- St. George Museum of ArtSt. George Art FreeThe city's art museum collects art and artifacts from Utah and the West and rotates shows from its permanent collection alongside current artists. Recent exhibitions include Ben Steele's 45th State of Mind, which runs art history and pop culture through a Utah lens, and Aziza Abdieva's Fear Alchemy, built from Utah landscapes. Tours can be requested ahead.
- Utah Tech University Sears Art MuseumSt. George History FreeUtah Tech University's art museum mounts about six exhibitions a year and holds a sizable permanent collection owned by the school. Recent shows include work by Amiah Dominguez and Colleen Gianatiempo's Material Poetics in the foyer. Every Presidents Day weekend it hosts the Sears Invitational, a show and sale of roughly 200 paintings by about 150 artists.
- Western Sky Aviation Warbird MuseumSt. George Military FreeA nonprofit museum at the St. George airport that preserves historic military aircraft in two hangars, one of 2,500 and one of 8,000 square feet. The fleet includes a T-37 Tweet, MiG-15 and MiG-17 jets, an F-5B, a T-38 Talon and a 1965 BAC Jet Provost still in flying condition, and a P-51 Mustang and T-33 often visit. Tours are free; groups of ten or more should book a week ahead.
Eastern Utah 18
- Edge of the Cedars State Park MuseumBlanding HistoryA state park museum beside Edge of the Cedars Pueblo, a village lived in by ancestors of today's Pueblo peoples from AD 825 to 1225. It shows one of the largest collections of Ancestral Pueblo pottery on exhibit in the Four Corners and covers both ancient and present-day American Indian cultures of the region. Outside, a paved trail circles the ruin past native plants and sculptures, and a ladder leads down into a 1,000-year-old kiva.
- The Dinosaur MuseumBlanding DinosaursA nonprofit dinosaur museum in Blanding with exhibits on feathered dinosaurs, dinosaurs from around the world, and eggs and babies. One room covers dinosaurs in the movies, from The Lost World and King Kong to Godzilla, and there is a sculpture gallery. The site also carries a memorial page for paleontologist Stephen A. Czerkas.
- Bears Ears Education CenterBluff History FreeA free center in Bluff, sponsored by the Bears Ears Partnership, with material on the region's archaeology and the history of Bears Ears National Monument. Volunteers hand out free maps and advice to hikers, paddlers and climbers. A collaborative Tribal exhibit led by the five Tribes and Pueblos of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition is in development.
- Bluff Fort Historic SiteBluff Pioneer FreeA rebuilt pioneer fort in Bluff, run by the Hole in the Rock Foundation, telling the story of the 1880 settlers. The grounds hold fourteen family cabins, including the Barton cabin, the only original San Juan pioneer cabin left, plus a full-size replica of Bluff's first meetinghouse and a co-op replica with a theater showing films on the pioneers. Kids can climb into a covered wagon and pan for gold, and there is a Navajo hogan and a Ute tepee.
- John Jarvie Historic RanchDutch John PioneerScottish immigrant John Jarvie set up a store, post office and ferry at a Green River crossing in Browns Park in 1880, and the BLM keeps the place much as a remote frontier stop. A stone house serves as a one-room museum with a short film, next to the two-room dugout where John and Nellie Jarvie lived, a blacksmith shop and corral built from hand-hewn railroad ties, and a replica 1881 general store holding the original safe. It is a long drive on back roads, which is part of the point.
- Dinosaur National Monument Quarry Exhibit HallJensen DinosaursThe hall is built over a wall of about 1,500 dinosaur bones from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation, roughly 150 million years old, with eight species still in it, including Stegosaurus and Allosaurus. There are several spots where you can touch real fossils, and other displays cover the small mammals, clams, amphibians, reptiles and plants that lived alongside them. The hall is a short drive from the Quarry Visitor Center, and in summer a free shuttle runs because parking is limited.
- Natural Bridges National Monument Visitor CenterLake Powell (near Blanding) ScienceThe visitor center on Cedar Mesa is the starting point for the monument's scenic loop, with exhibits, a short video and a bookstore that explain how water carved three natural bridges out of the canyon walls. From the loop you can walk to overlooks of Sipapu, Kachina and Owachomo bridges and an ancestral Pueblo site. It was the first International Dark Sky Park, so staying past sunset is part of the trip.
- Arches Visitor Center MuseumMoab ScienceThe park's only visitor center, just inside the entrance five miles north of Moab, listed by the state museum directory under geology and paleontology.
- Dead Horse Point State Park Visitor CenterMoab ScienceThe park is an International Dark Sky Park.
- Island in the Sky Visitor Center, Canyonlands National ParkMoab ScienceThe visitor center on Canyonlands' Island in the Sky mesa, about 40 minutes from Moab via UT 313, has exhibits, a park orientation video, book and map sales, backcountry permits and rangers on duty. Rangers give geology talks at Grand View Point from spring through fall, and the paved scenic drive with its overlook pullouts starts here. Treat it as an introduction to the park rather than a full museum; the park entrance fee applies.
- Moab Arts CenterMoab Art FreeMoab Arts is a City of Moab department with a free Foyer Gallery of rotating shows. From October 3 to November 15 it hangs the Plein Air Artists Colorado exhibition, over 100 works by more than 60 artists, with a closing reception at the November 6 ArtWalk. The building also runs classes for kids and adults, an artist residency, the Red Rock Arts Festival and a Holiday Craft Fair.
- Moab GiantsMoab DinosaursA dinosaur park at SR-313, about 9 miles north of Moab off US 191, that pairs an outdoor trail of more than 100 life-size dinosaur models with an indoor Tracks Museum. Kids can dig in the Dig-It-Out excavation sites, run around the dino playground and catch a 3D film. The park suggests setting aside two to three hours.
- Utahraptor State ParkMoab DinosaursAbout 15 miles northwest of Moab, this state park protects the Dalton Wells Quarry, one of the largest dinosaur bone beds in North America. More than 5,500 bones from over ten dinosaur species have come out of it, including Utahraptor, Gastonia and Moabosaurus. The visitor center displays fossils including dinosaur claws and skulls, rangers lead quarry hikes and fossil talks, and the park also interprets the Dalton Wells CCC camp and the Moab Isolation Center site.
- Needles Visitor Center Museum, Canyonlands National ParkMonticello ScienceThe visitor center for Canyonlands' Needles District, where UT 211 ends after a 35 mile drive west from US 191 (the turnoff is 40 miles south of Moab). It has park exhibits, an orientation video, maps and books, and rangers who hand out backcountry permits for trails such as Chesler Park and the Joint Trail.
- Goulding's Monument Valley MuseumMonument Valley HistoryThe trading post museum at Goulding's resort outside Monument Valley covers the area's early trading days and its part in Western film history. The bull pen shows the kinds of goods once traded here, the Ware Room holds historic photographs and handmade pottery, and there are rooms for Western movies, a historic dining room and a kitchen.
- USU Eastern Prehistoric MuseumPrice DinosaursUtah State University Eastern runs this Price museum on the rocks, fossils and prehistoric people of eastern Utah. Visitors can watch work in the Fossil Prep Lab and see an exhibit on eastern Utah rock art, and the current special exhibit looks back at 65 years of the museum's own handmade displays.
- Museum of Uintah CountyVernal History FreeVernal's county museum covers the Uintah Basin from its First Peoples through pioneer settlement, ranching and mining. A section on the Outlaw Trail tells the stories of local figures such as Matt Warner, Josie Bassett and the Newton Brothers, and the art gallery rotates its exhibits.
- Utah Field House of Natural History State Park MuseumVernal ScienceA 90-foot Diplodocus skeleton greets visitors in the rotunda of this state park museum in Vernal. The Jurassic Gallery shows a Stegosaurus and an Allosaurus over a Haplocanthosaurus, and the Eocene Gallery has a wall of leaf fossils and a diorama of life on the shores of Lake Uinta. In the Fossil Lab you can pick up a bone and chisel, and a rock wall lets visitors try to spot fossils among the pebbles.
The museums keep their own hours. We keep a weekly list.
Three free Thursday emails, each about its own corner of Utah.
- The Bench PressSugar House, Millcreek, Holladay and the east bench.Subscribe, free
- The Happy CamperLehi, American Fork, Highland, Alpine, Cedar Hills, Pleasant Grove and Lindon.Subscribe, free
- The Group ProjectProvo and Orem.Subscribe, free
Photos, left to right and top to bottom: Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Beneathtimp, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
