Dinosaur Park is a rip-roaring good time in Cabazon

According to Joshua, a staff member at the Cabazon Dinosaur Park just east of the town of Cabazon, many folks like to stop by and take a gander at the dozens of huge dinosaurs.

“We easily get a couple of hundred people stopping by each day during the week,” Joshua said. “On the weekend, probably twice that number.”

Anyone familiar with driving along Interstate 10 near Palm Springs has seen two huge dinosaurs lurking north of the highway.

The bright green T-Rex (Mr. Rex) stands menacingly just north of the longer green-with-blue-spots Brontosaurus (Dinny) in the main parking lot.

“Actually, it is an Apatosaurus,” Joshua explained.

I knew that since "Jurassic Park" is one of our favorite films.

I wondered if Joshua knew the name of the Spielberg movie should have been Cretaceous Park since there were no T-Rexes during the Jurassic period.

That question stayed in my mind since I did not want to sound like a know-it-all and knew Joshua would probably have known the answer anyway.

Laureen and I have stopped by the dino duos but never went into the Cabazon Dinosaur Park.

So on a recent visit to Palm Desert, I decided to stop and see what there was.

I snapped photos of the giant T-Rex and the larger Apatosaurus before walking up the long stairs built into the dinosaur's tail to the gift shop.

A couple of customers were looking at this trinket and that trinket as I moved to the cash register and purchased a ticket for the Dinosaur Park.

Breanna, working the till, explained how she loved the hours spent inside the dinosaur meeting all the visitors.

“People from around the world come here to see the creations on display.”

One of the busiest seasons is summer. “The kids are out of school, parents taking vacations with them, and then buses of travelers will stop. Crazy, huh, the summer when it is so hot?”

Crazy, like walking across black asphalt at 300 degrees while gawking up at the dinosaurs started by an entrepreneur named Claude Bell.

Yeah, that may seem crazy.

But the entire visit is worth it, whatever the weather brings and no matter the season.

It is pretty awesome.

Bell had opened a restaurant, the Wheel Inn, in 1958 and knew he needed something special to draw in customers from the interstate.

Bell had quite a life, being hired in 1947 by Walter Knott, who wanted the talented man to create works of art around his new theme park.

And his works are still on display: Handsome Brady and Whiskey Bill sitting on a bench in the western town, the Minuteman statue near the Independence Hall, the Calico Belles, a painting of both Walter and Cordelia Knott which hang in the Chicken Dinner Restaurant, and too many other projects to mention.

Bell was a very talented man.

Being a former sculptor and theme park artist for Knott’s Berry Farm, Bell decided what better to draw attention than a 150-foot-long Apatosaurus. He began construction on Dinny in 1975 and, after completing her, decided a companion was needed.

Thus the 65-foot-tall Mr. Rex was completed in 1986.

According to Joshua, there was a lot of highway material left over from the expansion of Interstate 10, and Bell made a deal where he could utilize those materials left over.

Rebar and concrete were the two main building materials Bell used, as can be readily seen while climbing up the stairs with Dinny and Mr. Rex.

After laying out a cost of $300,000 for the leftover materials from the interstate, Bell began construction on Dinny, and it took nearly 11 years to complete the dinosaur.

The metal framework was constructed, and then a second one was installed in the shape of the actual dinosaur with a spray concrete coating to complete the sculpture.

He originally had planned for Dinny’s eyes to light up and roll while, at the same time, flames and smoke would erupt out of the dinosaur’s mouth.

In 1970, Bell told a reporter. “It’ll scare the dickens out of many people driving up over the pass.”

And a few lawsuits to boot.

“Holy-Moley, Maude,” a driver may have yelled to his wife.

“Step on it, Red,” the wife probably yelled back. “I don’t want to be eaten by a monster and remember what happened to us when aliens abducted us.”

At the time, Bell concluded Dinny was probably the first dinosaur in the world to be used as a building, housing the gift shop in its belly.

In 1985, before Mr. Rex was completed, director Tim Burton used the site for some scenes from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure.

A silly movie about a juvenile guy, Paul Reubens, who has his red bicycle stolen and goes on a nationwide search to retrieve it from the bike thieves.

One scene has Reubens and, E.G. Daley, his supposed girlfriend, sitting in the head of the T-Rex while watching the sunset.

“That was Hollywood magic,” Joshua said. “Mr. Rex had not been completed yet, and they could not have fit in the head of Dinny, plus the head faces east. Not many sunsets in that direction.”

“Of course, the scene of Pee-Wee being chased by the truckers with dinosaur bones in their hands was filmed here.”

Mr. Rex had been built with a slide along its tail, but this was later filled with cement - probably because it looked weird having humans sliding out of a T-Rex's rear.

These structures are referred to as biomorphic buildings.

I have no idea why, but it sounds cool.

A third structure was planned, a Wooly Mammoth, but it was never completed due to Claude Bell’s passing in 1988.

I did not ask about the mammoth since I was taught it is not always polite to bring up the elephant in the room.

After he died in 1988, the business continued until the Bell family sold the company in the 1990s to a corporation out of Costa Mesa.

At the time of the purchase, there were plans to build a hotel and other restaurants (the Wheel Inn finally closed in 2013).

At this time, Dinny and Mr. Rex are the only two exterior dinosaurs that folks can look at for free. But a tremendous external exhibit has over 70 other dinosaurs to marvel at inside the park.

After entering the outdoor museum by walking down a wooden path, I found myself mug to mug with another dinosaur that would have ripped my mug to shreds in real life.

The colorful Velociraptor stared at me with big snarling teeth and pointed nails.

Anyone who has seen the film Jurassic Park or the 18 sequels by Spielberg will know these are the guys to watch out for.

Sure, T-Rex is giant and mean, but all you have to do is trip him and laugh while he tries to stand up.

“Use your arms, tough guy!”

But raptors - now those are the ones you don’t want to mess with.

The character, Robert Muldoon, stated it best in Jurassic Park: “They were instinctive hunters, and they never passed up prey.”

I wandered off from the Velociraptor but not before checking to see if its chest was moving. They can be crafty little buggers.

A long cement walkway leads visitors through the compound, with kiosks at each exhibit. The kiosks explain what particular dinosaur is on display and a few facts about each.

Pretty fascinating.

T-Rex can only run 25 mph, not unlike in the movies, where it can catch vehicles. Then again, the fastest human is probably around 23 mph.

Call an Uber or curl up in a fetal position in case of a T-Rex attack, or is that for bears?

There are many dinosaurs to look at: Iguanodons, Triceratops, Ankylosaurus, Sasquatchadons, and so many more.

As I wandered here and there, I saw quite a few families oohing and aahing about this exhibit or that exhibit. The younger children were excited to participate in an actual paleontological dig in the park.

Other events are conducted at the outdoor museum, and experts in the field give talks at different times or days of the week.

The facility is a must for anyone who wants to get up close and personal with some pretty realistic-looking and sounding dinosaurs.

For more information: https://www.cabazondinosaurs.com/

John can be contacted at; beyersbyways@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Dinosaur Park is a rip-roaring good time in Cabazon