Last weekend, on our monthly trip to visit my in-laws in Germany, we took the kids (my daughter, Becca and her cousin Paul) to the Dinosaur Park Teufelsschlucht (Dinosaurier Park Teufelsschlucht). The weather was nice and cool, which was perfect for a nice family outing.
The dinosaur park is located in Ernzen, Germany, right at the border of Luxembourg and Germany. The park has an area of 2 kilometers and offers a nice walkway, flat enough for Becca’s stroller.
Their website is only in German, but at the entrance, they do offer leaflets showing the map of the dinosaur park and other important information in three other languages – English, French and Dutch. The flyers are also available to download online here. You may also download the audio tour near the entrance in other languages.
What did we see inside the Dinosaur Park?
The makers have divided the park into the different periods starting with the Devonian Period (420 million years ago) to the Future (200 million years from now.) In each period are life-size replicas of the animals that roamed the earth at that time. Of course, the stars of the park are the dinosaurs. Oh my, I thought I knew my dinosaurs, but boy was I wrong. I only recognized the major ones.
The biggest dinosaur they have is the Diplodocus, as seen below. I felt really small when we walked past.
They also had a stegosaurus mom with her babies:
A triceratops:
And of course, any dinosaur experience is not complete without the ferocious Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Paul, who is now obsessed with dinosaurs, kept a running commentary for us. Unfortunately, my German is still not good enough to understand everything he says, but I understood enough. The huge beasts amazed Becca, but of course she is still too young to appreciate the history behind them. She kept trying to say “dinosaur” though.
Each dinosaur has a write-up in both English and German. It was quite interesting for a nerd like me!
Dotted throughout the park are boards with quizzes from Teo the Teufelosaurus (the mascot of the park). They were fun to answer!
In the middle of the park lies an Explorers’ Camp (Das Forschercamp) where the little explorers can search for treasure, dig up fossils, paint a dinosaur of their choice, among other activities. We got a triceratops for Becca to paint, but she didn’t want to, so Tobi did it for her instead. Paul dug for fossils and got a “fossilized” sand dollar. There was also a snack bar in the middle for ice cream and drinks.
Early humans
We also got to see the early humans and the animals from their time, like the wooly mammoth and sabre-tooth tiger, among others.
What I didn’t really enjoy were the animals of the future. They were scary and it seems like us humans will become extinct!
The bird is a Carakiller. The scientists predict that this bird will evolve from a Caracara, a South American Falcon, to live 5 million years from now. It will be about 8 feet tall, with a large hooded beak and razor-sharp claws! The other creature is a Kolosskalmar. Scientists predict this strange-looking creature to evolve from the giant squid, but will be a land creature. To roam the earth about 20o million years from now.
All in all, it was a nice outing for the little girl, and of course Paul immensely enjoyed it. We finished the park in about 3 hours, but you can easily stay longer and linger at the café by the entrance or at the Explorer’s Camp in the middle.
If you have a dinosaur-obsessed child and you’re in the area, it’s worth going for a visit.
More pictures from our visit can be found here.
And while you’re there, you might want to visit the Teufelsschlucht Nature Park. Teufelsschlucht means Devil’s (Teufels) Ravine (Schlucht). I haven’t been, but I’ve heard it is a nice walk among rock formations. Here is the website if you’re interested, sadly only in German as well.
