Texas Has a Dinosaur Capital and I Need to See It

I recently watched The End of Oak Street, and it apparently awakened something in me; I forgot how much I love a good dinosaur movie!

And I'm not talking about another trip to Jurassic World. No disrespect to the franchise that's been keeping dinosaurs employed in Hollywood for decades, but there's something especially terrifying about prehistoric creatures showing up somewhere they absolutely do not belong.

That's part of what I loved about The End of Oak Street. Take an ordinary neighborhood, add dinosaurs and suddenly nowhere feels safe. Naturally, my brain took this in a completely unnecessary direction.

What if something like that actually happened here in Texas?!

So I started looking into the dinosaurs that once called Texas home and discovered something I somehow never knew: Texas has an official Dinosaur Capital. And you can still see the footprints its prehistoric residents left behind!

Texas Has an Official Dinosaur Capital

That title belongs to Glen Rose, a small town southwest of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The Texas Legislature officially designated Glen Rose the Dinosaur Capital of Texas in 1997, and there's a very good reason. At nearby Dinosaur Valley State Park, you can see actual dinosaur footprints preserved in and around the Paluxy River!

We're talking about tracks made roughly 113 million years ago!

Someone can tell me a fossil is 113 million years old and I'll think, "Wow, that's old." Tell me I can stand next to the actual footprint of something that walked across Texas 113 million years ago and suddenly I'm having an existential crisis!

If Texas Dinosaurs Came Back We'd Have a Problem

Of course, watching a dinosaur thriller also made me curious about WHAT was walking around Texas back then. Turns out, some pretty intimidating creatures.

Dinosaur Valley has enormous sauropod footprints along with three-toed tracks from theropod dinosaurs. One dinosaur associated with the area is Acrocanthosaurus, a massive meat-eating predator from the Early Cretaceous period.

Basically, giant carnivorous dinosaur.

Not quite T. rex, but absolutely something I'd prefer to experience exclusively as a fossil.

There were also enormous long-necked sauropods traveling through the area, with some tracks suggesting they moved together in groups.

So if prehistoric Texas ever decides to make a comeback, we may have a slight problem.

You Can Still Walk Where Texas Dinosaurs Once Roamed

Thankfully, the dinosaurs are long gone. Their footprints aren't!

Dinosaur Valley State Park protects several track sites along the Paluxy River, and when conditions are right, visitors can get remarkably close to footprints left behind millions of years ago.

Because many are in the riverbed, visibility depends on water levels and weather, so it's worth checking conditions before making the trip specifically for the tracks.

Glen Rose has embraced its prehistoric reputation, too. Dinosaur World has life-size dinosaur models and fossil activities for anyone who wants to keep the theme going.

Basically, if you're the kind of person who watches one dinosaur movie and immediately starts wondering where you can find dinosaurs in Texas, Glen Rose is prepared for you.

Which is convenient, because apparently I am that person now.

I started The End of Oak Street wanting a good thriller, I finished it wondering what would happen if dinosaurs suddenly started roaming Texas again.

And somehow that led me to a Texas town where you can stand beside footprints proving that millions of years ago, they actually did!

Forget Jurassic World, I think I need to visit Dinosaur Valley!