Dinosaurs invade the West Sacramento waterfront. But is it worth $49 to take a tour?
The last time I visited the giant parking lot outside the Sacramento River Cats’ stadium was February, 2020. Thirteen months have passed; it seems both like two weeks ago and a different era.
In 2020, the parking lot was transformed into a magical world curated by Cirque du Soleil. The blue-and-white tapestry and booths hid the fact you were hanging out in a minor league baseball stadium parking lot.
Not so with Jurassic Quest, a drive-through dinosaur exhibition that opened in West Sacramento on Friday. The exhibit delivers an entertaining audio tour but falls short of delivering an immersive experience worthy of paying $49 per vehicle.
Drivers entering the parking lot will wend all the way to the north end of the lot, then the south end, the north end and back toward the south end before the tour starts. I clocked the trek at about a half mile, which isn’t bad when there are no cars in front of you, but could be pokey if the exhibition is busy.
The park promises more than 70 dinosaurs on display. The dinosaurs are set up in pods, with three to five different types typically in a scene. Drivers will need to link to a 35-minute YouTube video, which provides a solid narration for visitors and guides visitors through the displays.
The audio tour is well done. Hook your phone up to the car speakers to get the full effect of booming bass tones from dinosaur feet stomping the earth. Helpful hosts provide interesting tidbits of information about each dinosaur. The descriptions are easy enough for kids to follow but not so remedial an adult will lose interest.
Drivers will listen to a section of the video, then pause it before they get to the next section of the exhibit. North, south, north, south ... is that a big shark over there? (It’s a megalodon; keep your eyes on the road.)
The obvious drawback to the experience is the setting. Obviously, you are in a dusty parking lot. Jurassic Quest does little to disguise this. Dinosaurs are surrounded by a little cargo netting and, usually, a small fake plant or two. When it’s a sea-dwelling dinosaur, the cargo nets are blue. The city of Sacramento skyline is right there; you can see the Tower Bridge glowing behind a tyrannosaurus rex.
The dinosaurs themselves are fine. Some are animatronic, some have sound effects, many just sit there. The dinosaurs that move mostly just wiggle their necks or tails. This is not “The American Adventure” at Disney’s Epcot. And that’s mostly fine, but a few of the dinosaurs are in shabby shape, including a therizinosaurus, whose plastic skin covering its giant claws fell off Friday, leaving a medal wand waving back and forth.
When you get to the end of the labyrinth, all manner of dinosaur paraphernalia is for sale, including bubble wands, swords, T-shirts and figurines. Prices are reasonable, at $15 for a shirt. There’s also portable bathrooms.
Is it worth trekking to West Sacramento and spending an hour in a parking lot for $49 (plus a $5.50 fee) per vehicle? That depends on your financial situation. For one person, probably not. But if you can fit seven or eight people in your vehicle, most of them kids, it could be fun.
Kids are the obvious target market here. At a media preview Friday, a boy in a blue shirt hung out of the window in his parents’ SUV to get a better look at one of the giant dinosaurs. After all, it has been a long 13 months.
If you go
Jurassic Quest
Where: Sutter Health Park, West Sacramento. Entrance is on 5th Street.
Price: $49 per vehicle
Website: https://www.jurassicquest.com/
When: March 5 to 21
Wednesdays 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Thursdays 1 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Fridays 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Saturdays 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Sundays 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
