Fossils fuel drive to Montana dino sites

It's not difficult to imagine dinosaurs prowling the wide-open spaces of the American West. That's especially true in Montana, where the state's plains go on and on and lonely highways weave ribbons through the vastness. At the crest of every rolling hill it wouldn't seem out of place to see a triceratops rumbling along.

Today we call it Montana Big Sky Country, but what has been unearthed down below is just as impressive. Perhaps more so.

My son fell in love with the prehistoric behemoths as a preschooler. It's a common obsession of little kids, and we spent lots of time talking about terrible lizards (T. rex), earth shakers (seismosaurus) and all sorts of raptors (veloci-, pyro- and micro-). He outgrew his dino period quickly; they sank their teeth into me a bit longer.

So on a driving trip through Montana last summer, I grabbed the brochure for the Montana Dinosaur Trail (yes, there is such a thing) and plotted to visit as many of the 15 stops as I could. The goal of getting my "Prehistoric Passport" stamped at each locale was dashed when I was overruled by the other occupant of the car. Pick a couple, he said.

So that's how I ended up plunking down $5 to see one of the world's largest dinosaurs snaking around the inside of a prefab metal building in Bynum, Mont., and then spending a day getting up close and personal with the fossils at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.

Some of the biggest dinosaur discoveries in the world have been in Montana.

The first Tyrannosaurus rex fossil and the largest T. rex were discovered there. The world's "best preserved dinosaur," Leonardo the Brachylophosaurus, is at the Dinosaur Field Station in Malta, Mont. There's even a state fossil, the maiasaura.

A vast display of dinosaurs

About 75 dinosaur species have been found in Montana, more than any other state. The landscape during the Jurassic Period, about 155 million years ago, was more coastal and swampy; the mountains of Glacier National Park were forming then. Think Pacific Ocean and Everglades. Cowboys and outdoor enthusiasts, both common Montana species today, wouldn't recognize the place. The dinosaurs survived in Montana through the Cretaceous Period and then -- poof! -- they were gone.

The state's most impressive collection of dinosaurs is at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman. We headed there from the east side of Glacier National Park. In the rearview mirror were mountains, ahead were undulating hills and that famous big sky.

On the drive, I saw the sign for Two Medicine Dinosaur Center and then another that promises the world's largest dinosaur. We are in Bynum, I guessed, but there didn't seem to be much else there except a rock shop and a metal building. That's where the 137-foot skeletal model of the seismosaurus lives. The "earth shaker" is 23 feet tall.

The dinosaur center is cool and weird at the same time. It offers hands-on research opportunities in its lab and out in the field from May to September. There are two paleontologists on staff. For a time, I was alone with the big dinosaur, wondering what his skin looked like or if he would just swallow me whole if he could see me standing there. A few other folks wandered in and we all looked up, mouths gaping. There are a few other exhibits, but the earth shaker is the star of this show.

At the Museum of the Rockies, a world-class science institute, dinosaurs are the main draw, but there is a planetarium plus an impressive permanent exhibit on the American Indians that roamed the Northern Plains. There is also a pioneer homestead outside and a great gift shop.

But it's the dinosaurs that spoke to me. Literally. Scientists have re-created the rumbling, squeaking, moaning sounds they think the prehistoric creatures made. There are also exhibits of models with skin and features. Who knew they were so colorful?

The museum houses the world's largest T. rex skull and one of the first identified females. We spent a couple of hours with the big guys and then my guy gets fidgety.