7/12 Museum of the Rockies, Bozeman, MT

This is one of my absolute favorite museums!  It is on the campus of the Montana State University campus and is part of the university, as well as a non-profit organization.  It's most famous curator of paleontology has been Jack Horner for the past 30 years.  (You have probably seen Jack Horner on TV explaining his discoveries of dinosaur eggs and the research he has done on dinosaur growth and development.  It has the largest T-Rex collection in the world, although not all of it is on display.

The museum also has a large history of Montana exhibit, a planetarium showing multiple shows each day, and a living outdoor museum with volunteers demonstrating pioneer skills.

The day I was there, they had a gecko exhibit with live geckos from all over the world.

This is part of the historical part of the museum.  It is not large, but it is adequate and has an area representing Native American history.

I took this photo because the rocking chair very closely matches the one I have from my Grandma McArthur.

Nice almost complete head of a T-Rex.

A few more dinosaurs.  This one has a baby next to it.  The museum focuses several of its exhibits on dinosaur growth.  Apparently, many of the early paleontologists did not recognize smaller dinosaurs as juveniles because they looked so different than the adults.

Here is a whole series of triceratops, from oldest to youngest.

The next three photos show how triceratops evolved over a million years.

 

And these are a series of bones showing growth from very young to adult.

And, of course, some dinosaur eggs.

It's a fantastic museum, so if you drive through Bozeman, don't miss it.  Admission is for two days, so you can come back a second day.  Also lots of room to park RVs.