Denver Museum of Nature & Science

The museum’s permanent collections include quintessential treasures like dinosaur bones and Egyptian mummies alongside modern additions like the Morgridge Family Exploration Center. Home to a high-tech education studio and the Discovery Zone, kids can conduct scientific experiments, create art projects, and experiment with building methods and materials. There’s also an IMAX theater and planetarium, which offer several shows daily. If you think the museum’s exhibits are impressive, consider that only two percent of its 4.3 million artifacts are on display—after all, this is a world-class research and specimen storage facility as well as a museum.

Visit as part of the Mile High Culture Pass or Denver CityPASS, which let you build your own Denver itinerary, or take a quick cruise by the building on a guided sightseeing motor-scooter tour.

• The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is ideal for families with children and all natural science fans.

• Lockers are available for a nominal fee just outside the main (north) entrance.

• A café on the ground floor is open 11am to 2pm with grab-and-go items available throughout museum hours.

• The museum is accessible to wheelchairs and strollers. These as well as canes are available at the information desk.

• The museum has resources for guests with autism and sensory needs—ask about braille maps, noise-reducing headphones, assisted listening devices, and more.

The museum is located 3 miles east of downtown Denver in City Park. RTD buses 20, 32, and 40 stop close by, on Colorado and Montview Boulevards. Parking is free in the main lot as well as the underground parking garage, and additional street parking and bike racks are located all around the museum.

The museum is open from 9am to 5pm every day except Christmas Day. Most planetarium shows take place during regular business hours, while some IMAX films are shown in the evening.

The museum’s most ambitious undertaking, the Snowmastodon Project, was its largest-ever fossil excavation. It originated from the discovery of a young female mammoth in Snowmass, Colorado, and resulted in the discovery of more than 5,000 bones from 41 kinds of Ice Age animals including mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths, camels, deer, horses, and giant bison. Today you can see many of these fossils on display at the museum.