About Dinosaur Footprints
A small roadside turnout on Route 5 leads to something much older than the road, the city, or humanity itself. Sandstone slabs at Dinosaur Footprints preserve hundreds of tracks left when the Connecticut River Valley looked radically different and dinosaurs walked across mud roughly 200 million years ago.
The Trustees, which protects the eight-acre property, describes the site as the place where dinosaur footprints were first scientifically described. More than twenty trackways can be seen, along with several distinct kinds of dinosaur prints and other trace fossils. Some of the largest three-toed tracks are classified as Eubrontes.
The most satisfying part of the site is how little separates the visitor from the evidence. These are not replicas arranged inside a theme park. The impressions remain in exposed rock beside the road, where the shape and stride of long-vanished animals can still be traced across stone.
The reservation is generally open from April 1 through November 30, sunrise to sunset, and admission is free. Parking is limited to a small roadside turnout. The Trustees specifically warns visitors not to cross the active railroad corridor to reach the Connecticut River and asks people not to make casts of the fragile prints. Respect the stone and leave the dinosaur tracks exactly where 200 million years put them.