Prehistoric World

“Look! I can pick his nose! It’s really big!”
“That’s…super great honeybear.”

It’s been a couple of years that I’ve been wanting to visit this touristy site, but other things cropped up, so with about a week to go before it closed for the season, we ventured out early in the morning and got there just as it was opening at 10am. 
There’s not a whole lot of info online about this park. There’s no website, and I could only find an unofficial Facebook page and some Yelp reviews. Sooooo, I really didn’t know what to expect. I kind of went “Hmmmm” when we pulled into the parking lot, then “Oh!” after we exited the place-where-you-pay room, and then “Eeeeee!” when we started through the woods. 

My kids aren’t like, dinosaur crazy, but they like them enough, and we’ve read all our dino books quite a few times each (Dinosaurs Love Underpants is a favourite), so I thought they’d be interested, but maybe not over-the-moon out-of-their-minds excited. But they loved it! Even the 9-year old. My 4-year old made the gnarliest squeal/twitter of delight once he started down the path and then proceeded to hug each dinosaur’s leg and profess his love for them, while also letting them know how “cute” they were.
4-year olds are delightfully weird. 

Prehistoric World features over 50 life size, hand made dinosaur models along a 1km nature trail. Go inside the main entrance to pay (CASH ONLY!), and once you exit you’ll be in a wonderfully landscaped setting where you will see reproductions of the first reptiles from the Paleozoic era to the early mammals of the Quaternary. There are very small ones, to VERY LARGE ones. I purposely left out photos of the Brontosaurus in the image gallery so you’ll be surprised at its size. 

We sauntered around, read the info panels for the dinos, took a ton of photos, posed beside enormous legs, stopped to admire the ferns and hostas, and then tried digging for fossils in the sand pit, which was unfortunately rather difficult as you’re not allowed to use any tools. I’d thought about bringing along shovels and brushes so I’m glad I didn’t as they’re not allowed. It took us about an hour to wander our way around. 

If you’re expecting some sparkly, brand new theme park, that’s not what you’ll find here. Prehistoric World seems like a labour of love created basically in the backyard of the owners/builders over the past few decades. It IS wonderfully done though. I was impressed by the gardens throughout, the attention to detail (have a look at the “skin” of the various models), and just the paths themselves must have taken forever to create. It’s quite impressive what they accomplished, and continue to create. 

Morrisburg is about a 90-minute drive from Montreal’s West Island. If you’re looking for more activities in the area (because it doesn’t take that long to see Prehistoric World), you could make a whole day of it with Upper Canada Village which is about 3 minutes away, visit a park (we have some along Highway 2 if you look in the “search by map” feature), or visit one of the nearby beaches (we’ve got some of those on the site also, do a search for “beach”.)

If you want to pre-read the brochure before going, you can download it here:
download brochure

Things to note:

-Prehistoric World is open daily from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with the last admission at 3:15 p.m.
-The park is open from late May until Labour Day. For exact dates you can call 613-543-2503
-The address is 5446 Upper Canada Rd, K0C 1X0, Morrisburg. You can take exit 758 on the 401, OR, for a more scenic drive travel along highway 2. 
-The entrance fee is $10 for adults, $8 for seniors, and $6 for kids 4-15. Kids 3 & under are free. CASH ONLY!!!
-Kids (and adults) can TOUCH the dinosaurs, but DO NOT SIT OR RIDE ON THEM. It’s very, very tempting, but don’t be that person who lets their kids ride them. 
-There’s no food available on site, though you can bring your own and eat at one of the picnic tables.
-Two porta-potties are in the large parking lot, and there are modern bathrooms near the back of the building (at the entrance to the park). I couldn’t get the lock to work so have someone stand guard!