Oregon or Bust
Day 4: Prehistoric Gardens
June 1, 2015
 |
Above this sign is where you pay to enter the park |
It was still raining (second day) at the Coos Bay Jetty where
I camped the night before I continued on to the Prehistoric Gardens in Port
Orford, Oregon.
Prehistoric Gardens (PrehistoricGardens.com) is very easy to find as it’s on the
US-101 highway (on the left if you’re going north), and there’s a decent sized
gravel parking lot as well as a Tyrannosaurus Rex statue outside. I went into the gift shop and looked around
for a bit just to check it out before going out in the park area since it was
raining. The lady who was working that
day (I think she owns it or is the manager) had let a very pretty and quite
friendly gray cat out of the office area.
It actually came to me when I called to it and let me pet it for quite
awhile. Then the cat wandered off and
went back into the office.
 |
Tyrannosaurus Rex in front |
I bought a ticket ($12 for 13 years+) to go into the garden,
and the lady working (I really should get names) let me know to “follow the
dinosaur tracks” and told me where the umbrellas and walking sticks were should
I want one. These were just inside the
door to the gift shop. I picked an
umbrella in a giraffe print (might as well stick with the nature theme) and
headed outside. You don’t have to enter
the gift shop to get to the dinosaur area as there is a window you can walk up
to and pay there. It’s between the T-Rex
and the gift shop if you are coming from the parking area.
The Prehistoric Garden
is kept as a forest area and has small wood bridges throughout going over the
creek areas. The path is gravel and wasn’t
the least bit muddy with the continuous rain. There are signs throughout for the
plants as well as for the dinosaurs. I
saw a few dinosaurs which I hadn’t heard of before, which was strange since I
grew up with a younger brother who was obsessed with dinosaurs. There were some older ladies in the garden
area who were getting ready to leave when I walked to the first dinosaur. I was pretty much the only one there until
about halfway through when I encountered a family with two young boys.
 |
Geologic Time Chart just before the Brachiosaurus |
 |
Brachiosaurus |
 |
Dimetrodon |
 |
Triceratops |
 |
Annual Rainfall Chart |
 |
Dyatrama |
 |
Archelon |
 |
Lystrosaurus |
 |
Psittacosaurus |
 |
Ankylosaurus |
 |
Elasmasaurus? This thing was terrifying in peron |
 |
Elasmasaurus |
 |
Elasmasaurus |
 |
Struthiomimus |
 |
Trachodon |
 |
Ichthyosaur |
 |
Baby Triceratops |
 |
Cynognathus |
 |
Back of Stegosaurus |
 |
Stegosaurus |
 |
Stegosaurus |
 |
Pteranodon |
 |
Eryops |
 |
Bradysaurus |
 |
Seymoria |
As you can see I took lots of pictures, and these are really only a few of them. I had forgotten to grab the tripod out of the
trunk of my car so I used the fence posts to hold the camera so I could take pictures
with the dinosaurs. I had a lot of fun
checking out the dinosaurs and being a kid for a few hours.
After walking through the garden, I went back into the gift
shop to return the umbrella and buy a couple of souvenirs. I’m realizing now that I didn’t buy any
postcards (I use them for scrapbooking), or perhaps, there weren’t any for the
place. I did buy a t-shirt for myself
and a pen for a friend. I’m posting this
after being home from my trip for two weeks, and a week after seeing Jurassic
World. So, of course I want to go back
and reenact scenes from the movie.
From the Prehistoric
Gardens I had time enough to get to
Cape Blanco
to check out the historic Hughes House and the Cape Blanco Lighthouse which
will be posted on YourFriendElle.com at a later date. I’ll update this post with the link once Elle
gets it posted.
TTFN,
V
No comments:
Post a Comment