We spent most of our visit in the Earth history part of the museum, full of fossils of dinosaurs and other prehistoric life. Each section has signs that explain how those fossils fit into the development of life. The signs have a good balance between being long enough to give you a good idea of what's in the exhibit and being short enough that you don't feel flooded with more details than you can take in. The signs are in both English and Spanish. As you walk from room to room, you retrace the history of life on Earth from earliest times to the geologically recent. In the last room, be sure to look up, to see the saber-tooth cat preparing to pounce! The museum has other exhibits, but the history of life was what we concentrated on. On the day that we visited, museum staff had telescopes set up outside so that we could look at the Sun. Also, a team from NASA had unrolled a large photo-map of the Moon on the floor of an upstairs room. All of us who visited that day could become "Moon walkers"!

Great Museum. We were on a staycation up from Santa Fe for a few days. With all the great museums in Santa Fe, we didn't know what to expect. We were pleasantly surprised. The museum had more than we could absorb in a couple of hours. On entering the museum is a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Occasionally it would become animated and move its head and growl (neato). There was a little one looking up saying, "Louder, louder." Obviously a hit with the kids. We are used to the Museum of Science and Nature in Denver. A tough comparison. But, they did well here. The museum is multi-faceted with lots of exhibits, each well done. A lot on dinosaurs. We spent three hours there and didn't do it all. The only drawback is that their little café seems permanently closed. Would have been nice to sit and share our experience - or just take a breather from all the mind-work. Wold love to return.

A nice museum with a variety of fare, including live animals in one room. Some great dinosaur stuff, which was my motivation for visiting. Fossils, murals, reconstructions representing the varied life that existed in NM. There was a nice room of art pertaining to mammals and mineral cases as well. I would give about 90 minutes for a visit.

Blown away by the exhibits! I wasn't sure what to expect here, but my son wanted to go to Explora which is right next door. Explora changed their hours from opening at 9 am to 10 am. So we had an hour to kill and I was curious about this place anyway. The admission was super cheap! Admission for my grown son and I, including the 3D Imax T. Rex movie was only $20! We walked in and started looking around. I expected a few dinosaur skeletons with a plaque and a brief description of what it was. Boy, was I wrong! There was so much to take in, and so professionally done and in-depth, I can't even describe how much there is to see here! Very nice gift shop as well, but the cafe' was closed due to pandemic and has not since re-opened. I highly recommend this museum for anyone of any age!

A modest size museum with some excellent exhibits. Particularly good for dinasaurs and geology. Also A very good space section. Some of it is tucked away, so you need to do some exploring or look carefully at the map provided. This would be great for a family.

Fantastic museum for a variety of ages. Subjects covered: dinosaurs, space, and minerals. Lots of hands-on activities. My 10 year old had a blast, and my teenager and science teacher husband also really enjoyed the exhibits. I have a bad back and was grateful for the plentiful benches. The museum is stroller friendly, and the families there with very young children also seemed to enjoy it. Very affordable - under $10 per person if I recall correctly. We covered it in about an hour, but we skipped most of the interactive stations, skimmed some exhibits, and one was closed for renovation while we were there.