Jurupa Mountains Discovery Center

I thought this place would be interesting because I would see the statute from the freeway.
However as soon as I got off my car, I had the feeling that this place was abounded. We didn’t know where a thing was, everything as so vague. Inside the museum, there were some cool things to see but nothing extraordinary.

This was a nice little outing. It felt like going mountains without driving so long.

My eldest son visited this location on a school field trip, and knowing that his father is something of a geology, paleontology, and botany nerd, he was eager to return with his family… All the way from Arcadia…
Well, we had to pick up the niece from Hemet for this weekend’s Derby Day 5k anyway, so into the Tahoe we went for a journey to Jurupa. The skies threatened rain with showers on the drive, but we arrived to see the giant red iron mammoth sculpture standing in silent vigil against cloudy but rainless skies.
The «cultural center» is certainly a modest place: loosely-​arranged stands of cactus, succulents, agaves, yuccas, and various drought-​tolerant plants are interrupted by a building or a haphazardly-​paved roadway. Various dinosaur sculptures made of concrete and iron decorate the arid landscape. There are simple restrooms, a gift shop with lots of rocks, gems, and fossils available for purchase, and a surprisingly impressive museum of fossils and geological interests.
Admission is free to wander around a bit, although some trails are designated for guided tours only. If you like cactus, euphorbia, and other succulent plants, you will enjoy a visit here. There are several nice specimens, and a nursery with very reasonable prices for cactus and plants you won’t find at your local Home Depot.
The staff was really friendly and welcoming, and even claimed to remember my son from all his questions on his field trip.
Somehow, I can believe that.

Enjoyed this little gem off the 60 frwy. Took my kids and met a friend and her lil one; we had a good time exploring the trails. The dinosaur trail tour was awesome. The guide was knowledgeable and honest. She allowed the kids to participate and seemed like she she liked her job. Kids get to take home a variety of rocks/​fossil/​shells/​shark teeth — FREE souvenir (can’t go wrong)!
Pros:
Free entertainment
Kid friendly
Educational
Cons:
No shade; and it gets HOT out here
Nowhere to buy snacks

This place is so awesome, the staff is great super friendly and so knowledgeable. There’s so much to see and learn! Had a great time with my 1year old.

We went for a field trip and it was my daughters birthday. We had 3 grades go and all had a tour guide and got to do different things. All the kids got to bring home something. Which they loved.

Great place for a wedding, has many areas you can use and a lot of parking. What we liked the best is you can have live music and its in the hills for a rustic feel.

Like a lot of other people, this place caught my attention thanks to the gargantuan Mammoth sculpture perched on the mountainside off the 60 freeway.
There are all kinds of things to see at Jurupa Mountains Discovery Center, ranging from native American artifacts, antique farm equipment and dinosaur fossils to mineral specimens and a cacti nursery.
It’s clear when you visit here that this place is the product of someone’s legacy — brought into existence over 50 years ago thanks to the vision of its founders. On the premises there is not only a small museum and a gift shop but a time capsule, intended to be revealed in 2039.
While the Jurupa Mountains Discovery Center is geared toward school-​age children, nearly anyone of any age can learn something here. As a semi-​precious stone collector, I particularly liked the number of mineral specimens at the gift shop.
The staff are friendly and the grounds are peaceful. When you visit, you don’t get an overly formal «corporate» vibe. It feels much more like a homestead — complete with a prayer garden and roosters wandering about.

This place is a diamond in the rough. It has so much potential but not much execution. I appreciate that it is free and educational, however, the rusted nails, signs, and other metal objects are dangerous for children. The old splintered wood planks and other things are also an issue. The amount of cacti there is alarming too. But I do enjoy the outdoors of the facility and that it gives children wonderment! Just my experience and thought about our visit.

This is our second visit here and our last. We started the afternoon off well we visited the gift shop and spent some money. We then started walking around. So we went up a trail where the big dinosaur displays are, we have son’s so obviously this is the highlight. While up there one of the employees starts yelling at our way– excuse me really? There is a way to speak to customers obviously she has no customer service. So because she’s yelling we didn’t pay any attention to her, she could be yelling at her kid or maybe she’s off her rocker and likes to yell. Nope she decides to keep yelling and proceeds to yell at us and says this trail is for paid customers only. Umm I just spent money In the dang gift shop. There are no pamphlets or any signs stating that you have to pay to see the dinosaurs. First you don’t yell at me, you come up to me the customer and speak to me not yell. May I add she was leading a tour of kids while yelling like a banshee. She threatened to have us removed from the premises. Really because we wanted to see the dinosaurs? Hmm.

The Jurupa Mountain Discovery Center is a cool little place to blow an hour or so where the only cost is your time. It’s basically made up of four sections: The nursery, where you can view and purchase all sorts of cacti. The Dinosaur Trail, which is a walking trail where you you’ll see some dinosaur sculptures and even more cacti along the way. The Earth Science Museum, where you can view all kinds of fossils, rocks, minerals & other assorted artifacts. And finally the gift shop, where you can actually purchase said fossils, rocks, minerals & other assorted artifacts. The Biblical Garden seems to be under construction but the turtle/​koi pond and what looked to be loads of grape plants were something I hadn’t seen before so there’s some progress. The Dinosaur Trail is pretty cool but make sure you have closed toed shoes and there isn’t a lot of shade going on so it gets hot. The Earth Science museum is small but there are some cool things to see there like the dinosaur eggs and various displays. The gift shop was my daughter’s favorite spot. Not just a place to buy things but they have a few terrariums with snakes and weird looking bugs inside. The staff is always very friendly and very helpful. I did the Rock Collecting at the Dinosaurs before and we had a good time. You go to a presentation and check out some dinosaur related items including fossilized poop. Then you hike up a trail and fill an egg carton with various rocks & minerals. My daughter enjoyed it. Like I said at the beginning of my review, the JMCD is a good place if you have kids and an hour or so to kill. And most of it is free. I felt the paid portion was worth it and at the same time I felt like I was helping towards the upkeep and improvement of this place. I’d recommend it.

I came thinking it would be a lot bigger, but the lady informed me that they do guided tours at 9 am and 11am through the trails. There is only about two dinosaur statues you can see without actually walking down the trails. I suggest you go on a cooler day because the heat makes it almost unbearable to walk around without much shade.
This place is definitely interesting to check out with family or a SO. However, the exhibits felt a bit outdated (although cleanly kept)

This place has many different types of rocks, minerals and fossils to look at. Also, they sell cactus and have a gift shop. I enjoyed walking around and seeing a cactus garden and a pond filled with fish and turtles. However, the exhibits needs to be better maintained and function correctly.

Visited JMDC with my sister and two year old nephew in the summer. It was okay (3 stars plus an extra star because it was free!) It’s located in the Jurupa Mountains in Riverside county.
There are a few buildings but most of it is outside. There are about a couple dozen or so dinosaur sculptures around the property. There’s also an earth science building with rocks, gems and petrified wood. It does look a little outdated but it’s a pretty extensive collection for a little museum in the IE.
There are a few gardens — one that has a pond with turtles and fish. The other is an iris garden. If you visit in spring, I bet it is beautiful but there was only one or two blooming flowers when we were there in July. There were a ton of cacti and I would have liked to learn more about the different types of plants and trees.
I would recommend visiting and donating especially if you’re in the area and you have a little one that would be interested. Also wear appropriate clothing for the weather and closed toe shoes. I wore flip flops and there was a lot of sand, rocks and dirt plus little fire ants crawling around!

I took my 7-​year old niece there today! The Executive Director, Wes Andree, is very knowledgeable and really has a passion for the JMDC. His wife, Dee, also assists him when there are schedule birthday parties, camps etc. It’s free to go and really reasonable prices to buy your little one a few souvenirs! The Dino Dig was fun, there were turtles in the pond, and all of the dinosaur exhibits were fun to look at. Inside the gift shop are live critters (snakes, cockroaches, lizard, tarantula and walking sticks) to look at.

I came here with my daughter, this place is pretty out dated. The earth museum was really cool and they do carry a lot of mineral rocks if that is something you’re into. The one thing that did suck was the majority of the trails were closed or you needed s guide. That was no fun.

This is a great place to go and look at rocks if your a collector or have an appreciation for things like that. A great place to teach the children about earth science as there are plenty of posters with real rocks on display with brief description. There is also a rock store on site with other cool surprises. I highly recommend this place for a visit if your in town.
also if your a jewelry maker/​caster you can get your gems here too!!!

We held our daughter Izzy’s 4^th birthday party here on March 14^th and everyone had an amazing time! Wes, Virginia (Jinny), and Dee were such a joy to work with from start to finish — so accommodating, resourceful, and flexible! We had approximately 90 guests. Including approximately 30 kids — with approximately 24 of them age 6 and under.
Wes and Virginia were with very helpful from the start, from providing information about the various party packages, meeting with us a week before the party to help us finalize the event details (including table set up, activities, the timeline for the day, etc). The permitted us to drop off two cars full of non-​perishables the day before, arranged the picnic tables to our liking, and even installed a pulley for our large dinosaur piñata the day before the party. Jinny and Dee also customized the souvenir give away bags to our dinosaur dig theme — each bag contained a nice sampling of gem stones, a shark’s tooth, quartz crystal, and yummy chocolate rocks — everyone loved them! We also included a handmade flute (purchased in addition to the package and completely worth it) in each goody bag we prepared.
Jinny even made sure we had everything we needed for the set up and she also personally led our group tour and mineral dig! She was so knowledgeable, maintained the interest of our young crowd, and was really good with kids and adults alike.
Did I mention, they let us use their dollies and carts to help during set up and clean up? We highly recommend this place for your little one’s party and we can’t express our appreciation enough for Wes, Jinny, and Dee’s kindness and help! My daughter and her friends even had a chance to hold Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches.

Super super duper outdated.
If you get bitten a lot, spray yourself with with bug spray. There are spider web everywhere you go.
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The museum is like a step back into the past, literally. The displays are probably from the late 70’s early 80’s, it looks pretty beaten up. Has… you know, the old car smell.
Anyway, you will learn about rocks and minerals.
Gift shop is cool because it’s like a rock show, so you get to buy cheap rocks and minerals. Large of selection.
Like other people have written, it’s really not something you go out of your way for but if you are in the neighborhood, swing by because it’s free!
Donate to the museum because it looks like it’ll need some help.

For years, I have seen these huge dinosaur and mammoth statues standing at attention on the hillside as I drove on the 60 freeway near Riverside. Intriguing, but not enough for me to investigate for the past 30 years… until I found myself looking for stimulating activities for the exuberant and inquiring mind of my little grandson, a 1 ¾ year old toddler. Trying to find something that will not cost an arm and a leg, and close by, this came up on my Unilocal search. A plus, it was free.
The surrounding area is dry, rocky hills. As you enter the compound, there is a large parking area. It looks as though some large educational events, perhaps geared for children and families happen here. Not exactly sure. This particular weekend it was quiet and empty for us.
As you come up the driveway, there appears to be a plant nursery, a building that is labeled a museum, another large building that is the gift shop, and trails for exploration. Hiding in the landscaping of desert friendly plants, you will find big and small dinosaurs peeking out that the kids can touch. And the museum, while more for adults than small children, does have it occasional items of interest. There is an Indian mannequin dressed in real costume garb, Indian artifacts, and real dinosaur bones and eggs, shells, petrified wood, beautiful crystals.
The gift shop is not ordinary either. Besides the snacks and predictable plastic dinosaur toys (always cool!), discovery toys, books, and jewelry, there are interesting fossils and minerals to look at and buy for your own personal rock collection.
Parking is located at a lower level than the buildings, and there is some minor physical exertion required, but not much. Both stairs and a sloped driveway can get you up to where you can see the good stuff. The restrooms are clean and are located at the upper level in a separate building.
Not bad for a family outing. Bring a picnic lunch (I think I saw some picnic tables) and you have an old fashioned day adventure that will distract the kids from staring at their YouTube videos and games.