Prehistoric Garden

"Step into another era!"

We recently visited the Prehistoric Garden in Port Orford with our 2 boys, age 4 years and 18 months. To say they were excited would be an understatement. They are too young to appreciate the educational value of the Garden, but they absolutely loved looking at the 23 life-like dinosaurs, marveling at their size, shouting to me about their teeth and claws, and running to the next dinosaur with glee. Everywhere you look, you can see a dinosaur peeking through the rainforest!

I fell in love with the rainforest setting that houses these giants. The walking path to visit the dinos is packed gravel (no problem for our Chicco umbrella stroller), lined with short moss-covered wooden fences. There are enormous ferns and trees with hanging vines, wooden bridges, huge clover, and amazing views from the path as you make a slight ascension about halfway through the walk.

Older kids and adults will enjoy reading the signs all about the different eras, plant life, and history of the area. It can be very wet, so the Garden supplies umbrellas, but if it's busy you might need to use your own.

The walk took us about 20-30 minutes, and my boys wanted to go around again to see all the dinos one more time.  The dinos were hand-made by the creator of the Garden, who has since passed away, but are very well maintained and obviously cared about by those running the place.

Very nice lady in the gift shop, and the fun dinosaur goodies were moderately priced. A t-shirt for my 4-year-old was under $10. The tour is a bit on the pricy side, but my kids had so much fun that it felt worth it to me. Adults are $8 and kids 3-10 are $7. There are picnic tables on the large lawn out front, which is a great place to sit and eat, as long as you keep the kids close because there's no fence or barrier separating the Garden from the highway.