The Denver Museum of Nature and Science was another great science museum open to us through the ASTC program. Even the drive from Cherry Creek park was painless - I was expecting traffic headaches that just never materialized.
One of the first sections of the museum we encountered presented Gems and Minerals. I think we could almost have spent our entire afternoon in this one area.
Some exhibits recreated the caves where the minerals were found. I think their curators must have spent time at Disney learning how to bring the environments to life in the museum. It looked like they brought entire sections of caves inside for display. Unfortunately, the low lighting to recreate the feel of the caves meant our pictures never adequately captured their fantastic work.
A horizontal slice of a stalagmite (calcite or aragonite).
Pyrite, nicknamed "fool's gold," is a common mineral and a source of sulfur (S) for use in gunpowder, sulfur dioxide for making paper, and sulfuric acid for lead-acid batteries.
Huanzala Mine, Peru
We really liked the way the displays were grouped and presented. I believe there must be a nearly infinite combination of minerals and gems. The colors and shapes were absolutely fascinating. Below is one of at least two dozen cases. We needed an entire day just to study everything in the displays, but we had so much more museum to explore! We had to breeze by a lot snapping a few pictures here and there.
Mesolite Crystals - found in cavities in volcanic rocks at Poona, India. Mesolite is a sodium, calcium, aluminum silicate that belongs to the zeolite group of minerals.
Quartz - var. Agate
Fairburn, Custer County, South Dakota 1952
The next stop was the Space Odyssey with many exhibits manned by volunteers who seemed able to answer just about any question the hordes of kids could think to ask. It was a bit frantic and I was anxious to see what else was ahead, so we spent very little time in space before moving on.
The lounge on the third floor was a nice place to catch our breath and study the museum map to make sure we didn't miss anything important. The view looking towards the capitol was nice with the Rockies in the background.
Spratlen Family Lounge, dedicated 2002, generously donated by Mr. and Mrs. F. P. "Budd" Spratlen III.
From the rooftop deck, the view was even more impressive. City Park in the foreground looked like another place we will have to explore. I've decided we will definitely have to make another stop in Denver sometime soon.
Most of the exhibits on the second floor displayed an array of animals in their natural settings. The dioramas were so well done it was often difficult to see where the foreground ended and the painted background started. Huge rooms were devoted to North American wildlife, the Edge of the Wild, Bears and Sea Mammals, Australia and the South Pacific Islands.
The lighting on the manatees was in motion creating the illusion of waves overhead - you could believe you were looking into an aquarium!
The diorama below really impressed me. I never could determine how the fleeing prey were suspended. Notice the dust kicked up as the running hooves contact the ground. So, will the cheetah catch them or will he tire first?
Other exhibits on the second floor included North American Indian Culture, Expedition Health (an interactive collection delving into the human body) and the "Discovery Zone" where patrons were dazzled with mind-bending puzzles, riddles and illusions.
We had a lot more to see but hunger got the best of us so we took a few minutes to grab a bite to eat in the T-Rex Deli - nothing too fancy, but good and reasonably priced. It was also a chance to lets our legs take a break.
On the third floor, we took a "Prehistoric Journey" where we saw lots of old bones, a workshop where volunteers were working to expose actual dinosaur bones from a dig in Madagascar and more dioramas depicting scenes as they might have been millions of years ago.
Stygimoloch spinifer - bony-headed dinosaurs
We had to quickly run through collections of mummies and artifacts from ancient Egypt, displays of Birds of the Americas, Rare Birds, Botswana, Africa and display dedicated to the natural wonders of the state of Colorado.
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