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Dinosaur Land
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
4 reviews for Dinosaur Land
Like another reviewer here, I'm a sucker for road side attractions. Weather it's a Muffler Man or a Bob's Big Boy, it's all cool. Now here is a place full of 1970s fiberglass dinosaurs. How can you go wrong? It's silly and stupid, but still cool.
When you first walk inside you are forced to get trapped in the gift shop area where you can spend all you money on tacky touristy stuff. Pay your $5 admission and walk in. Yes it can be expensive if you have a large family, but who cares, you can get your picture taken with King Kong! Yes, King Kong. How did he get in a park with dinosaurs? I have no clue, If you find out let me know, also let me know about the giant king cobra and giant preying mantas. Walking around you'll see some cool fighting scenes, all complete with blood =)
So if you are in White Post Virginia, stop by and give it a try. Sure you'll spend 5 bucks per person, but just walk slow and make the best of it and get your picture with King Kong. I did =)
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I was in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley for a big wine tasting last year, and I decided to take a drive to see some revolutionary and civil war era stuff.
On my way to Front Royal, I spied a large fiberglass dinosaur by the side of the road. next to it was a sign in vaguely Disneyland-esque letters proclaiming that I had arrived at DINOSAUR LAND, "a prehistoric educational forest for children of all ages."
Wow.
In the late fifties, someone thought it would be a good idea to make a whole bunch of fiberglass dinosaurs (and other strangely non-mesozoic creatures - a large pink octopus? king kong?) and place them in a park-like setting so that tourists would have something to do on their way to other tourist spots.
Their website proclaims that Dinosaur Land is a place "where visitors can turn back the pages of time to the Mesozoic era, where dinosaurs were the only creatures that roamed the earth." Hmm, what a weird world that would be - no fish? no insects? no birds? no little furry mammals?
weird, jackie, weird.
Anywho, it looked fabulous - cheesy renditions of TRex, as if done by some primitive artist. The Civil War could wait - I pulled over.
Drat! It's the middle of January on a Monday and Dinosaur Land is closed.
I was able to stick my camera through the chain link and take some great photos.
I'm sure though that if I would have gone in, I would have learned all sorts of prehistoric educational things.
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I cannot believe someone actually awarded FIVE stars to Dino Land when they haven't even been inside......
The only thing cheesier than Dino Land itself is someone actually trying to take pictures of it while it's closed.
That being said, I have to admit I did pay the $5 to actually walk through it. Wow, what an experience. The gift shop gives the word tacky a whole new meaning. I mean why do we need to be selling every color of depression era glass at Dino Land? I just don't get it.
I am still haunted by the stench in their restroom, it was an odd blend of ammonia and well, a high school locker room after football practice.
Some of the souvenirs actually looked as if they had been there pre-1972 based on the layer of dust. I believe we found a few that had actually expired.
I would suggest this if you have kids and they are really into dinosaurs and you have absolutely nothing else to do. I would also suggest it if you need some really unusual Flickr or MySpace photos but the only thing you are allowed to climb on is King Kong's hand so that's out.
One other bummer, no dogs allowed, even though Dino Land is an OUTDOOR attraction. I guess they don't trust us to clean up after them even though some of the nicest boutiques in Middleburg allow dogs. Go figure. I might understand their unwillingness to permit entrance of man's best friend if the place were in pristine condition.....
This is unfortunately not the case.
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I am a sucker for roadside attractions. I'm not talking about antique stores and Civil War battle sites; I'm talking gigantic fiberglass animals, historically inaccurate museums with great kitsch appeal, wacky tour guides who run the gamut from colorful to fanatical, things of that ilk.
So you can imagine that Dinosaur Land was one of the happiest accidents of my traveling life. I was driving through the Shenandoah Valley when I stopped at an intersection, looked to my left, and lo: a triceratops was sitting there, just chillin'.
This place has it all. Fiberglass dinosaurs with "blood" dripping from their nasty teeth, scraggly-haired "cavemen", a shark that you can climb inside of, a completely out of place pink octopus, and even King Kong. Dinosaur Land gets an easy five stars from me. I'm not expecting to see fossils, or to have a paleontologist talk to me about prehistory. I want the kitsch and I want it now! Dinosaur Land definitely delivers.