TheBest Museums in Utah

Why it is so good to have these this close

Utah keeps things, and somebody built a museum around most of them. A lot of those museums sit within an easy drive of each other, so a free afternoon can turn into a dinosaur hall and a pioneer cabin without spending the day in the car.

• 260+The state's own museum directory counts more than 260 Utah museums, from art and history to botanical gardens and zoos.
• DinosaursThe Museum of Ancient Life in Lehi says it has one of the world's largest collections of mounted dinosaurs, and the quarry wall at Dinosaur National Monument shows more than 1,500 fossils still in the cliff face.
• FreeA lot of it costs nothing. The BYU Museum of Art is free, the Springville Museum of Art lists no admission charge, the Utah Museum of Fine Arts has free days on the first Wednesday and third Saturday of every month, and the State Capitol tours are free.
• 1869Golden Spike, near Brigham City, is where the final spike of the first transcontinental railroad was driven on May 10, 1869. The replica locomotives, No. 119 and Jupiter, are moved out there daily.
• First peoplesAt Edge of the Cedars you can climb down into a kiva about 1,000 years old, and Anasazi State Park in Boulder keeps an Ancestral Puebloan village from about AD 1050 to 1200.
• No carDiscovery Gateway Children's Museum can be reached by FrontRunner, TRAX or bus, and the Utah Cultural Celebration Center is near the Redwood Junction Green Line TRAX station.
• 450 acresThis Is The Place Heritage Park is a state park of more than 450 acres a few minutes from downtown Salt Lake City, with costumed interpreters in its Heritage Village.