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Valley Notebook
>Longtime resident and Valley aficionado Paul Morris shares his personal recommendations for experiencing this Southwestern locale to the fullest.
DINOSAURS & GOLD PANNING
Arizona Museum of Natural History
MY SON and I stood at the bottom of a steep rock canyon, looking up toward the high cliff edge. For the last several minutes, we had been hearing the deep rumble of thunder in the distance-a warning that a rainstorm might be in progress higher up the mountain. Here in the desert, they warn you to stay out of canyons during rainstorms. A bit of rain, they say, and a slot canyon can suddenly fill with a wave of angry water. Beware of flash floods.
Suddenly we heard a whoosh of water. "There it is!" screamed my son happily. The froth of water spilled down the canyon walls, creating a series of waterfalls and a small river that turned away from us at the last moment, splashing into a pool.
Actually, we weren't really out in the desert. We were inside the wonderful Arizona Museum of Natural History, enjoying their faux flash flood. It's a watery event that takes place every 23 minutes, and we were watching it for the third time that day.
But that's not what brings us to the museum. We come here to see dinosaurs. And the Arizona Museum of Natural History obliges. Just walk into the lobby and you come face-to-face with a charging Columbian mammoth fossil, complete with two curved tusks. It's a scene straight out of the movie Ice Age. This impressive tower of fossil bones, some 1.4 million years old, always grabs my attention. They call this the Cenozoic Lobby. We call it awesome.
My son recommends turning right to go down the tunnel called "The Walk Through Time." We always stop in the meteorite room and touch the big one from Tucson. (A blacksmith used it as an anvil for many years.) Then we're into the geology section. Lots of crystals here-some you can touch-and it's always a good idea to remind children that the crystals you can touch sometimes transfer magical powers to those with pure hearts.
Just past the rocks, we see what we came for-fossils and replicas of critters long dead but oh-so-alive in our minds. My son likes the Paleozoic shark, the oversized scorpion, and the Dilophosaurus, perhaps the most famous dinosaur found in Arizona. Keep going and you'll soon be trying to pronounce tongue twisters like Mosasaur and Pliosaur.
Dinosaur Mountain is perhaps the most dramatic exhibit here. You'll find life-sized robotic dinosaurs that move and bellow. The Tyrannosaurus turns its head, growls, and glares at a Stegosaurus from time to time.
Why do kids love dinosaurs? I asked my son and he said, "Because they are big and awesome and extinct!" I think children admire the creatures' strength and power, but do so from the safety of time and distance.
I have yet to meet a kid who can't rattle off a series of long Latin names for extinct reptiles. My six-year-old son can talk with great authority on dinosaurs, contrasting and comparing their various attributes and dimensions. He's quick to correct my mispronunciation of dinosaur names ("Dad, it's ‘Dy-no-ny-kus!'") and enjoys creating elaborate imaginary plays using miniature plastic creatures. My theory is that young kids know more about dinosaurs than most university life-science majors.
Of course, there's lots to see and do here that doesn't involve dinosaurs. We like to pan for gold on the patio. Just grab a plastic pan, slosh in some wet sand, and you'll find small flakes of pyrite (aka fool's gold). Kids like to explore the Territorial prison cells, and adults like the history of moviemaking in Arizona.
