City: Denver, CO

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (303) 322-7009, (800) 925-2250

Address: 2001 Colorado Blvd. (in City Park

Insider Pick:

Description: The Denver Museum of Nature and Science is the largest cultural attraction in the Rocky Mountain region, with an average of 1.5 million visitors annually. In addition to more than 90 dioramas depicting animals from around the world, the museum’s permanent exhibitions include Expedition Health devoted to studying the human body and a fine gem and mineral collection that includes examples of Colorado gold and the largest rhodochrosite gem in the world. Other highlights include the Hall of Ancient Peoples, which deals with early man and early civilizations. Don’t forget to take a look at the redesigned Egyptian Mummies exhibit. The museum also houses an award-­winning dinosaur exhibit, the $7.7 million Prehistoric Journey. It includes walk-­through “enviroramas” complete with controlled lighting and temperatures, sounds, vegetation, and even bugs!The $50 million, 24,000-square-­foot Space Odyssey provides an immersion experience in the wonders of space with interactive opportunities to learn about areas of the cosmos. Visitors can feel what it’s like to dock a space shuttle, fly into deep space, and walk on the surface of Mars. The completely digital Gates Planetarium enables visitors to leave Earth’s surface and fly through the solar system. It’s one of the country’s first all-­digital planetariums and is equipped with surround sound. Although Space Odyssey is free to those who buy admission to the museum, the planetarium shows and some special exhibits cost extra. Watch for special exhibitions, which in the past have included artistic and archaeological blockbusters such as Ramses II and Body Worlds 2, and entertaining fare such as Star Trek: Federation Science. The museum is open daily and has a cafeteria-­style restaurant and the T-­Rex cafeteria.