Jurupa Mountain

You know, for years I drove by this place without ever knowing it existed.
Then one day I noticed these "dinosaurs" on the hill amongst some trees.
Turns out, these are props used as part of a tour through the Jurupa
Mountains Cultural Center. A place kind of stuck in time (millions of years
ago), that offers individual and group tours, including schools. It's located in
kind of a remote area of Riverside between downtown Riverside and Ontario
just to the north of the 60 Freeway. They charge a nominal fee for the tour
and it's rather interesting. Your guide is well versed in prehistoric times and
tries to educate the group a bit on facts of the past. Some plants and trees
are apparently rare in the area, including the "popcorn" plant, which really
does smell like popcorn! You get to see wild bunnies, mock dinosaurs (which
are a good 30 years old and are in the process of being renovated), and
you're told to keep an eye out for wild snakes also! The grand finale is when
you get to the end of the tour. You end up on a plateau where truckloads of
fossils and stones are dumped regularly. These are true fossils and ancient
stones that come from "around the world", but most of them come from
Colorado (or New Mexico? Something like that). You can find fossilized
shells, imprints of plants and fish in stone and even sharks teeth! All of
which are millions of years old. At the beginning of the tour everyone is
given an egg carton and you're allowed to find and keep 12 items. Which can
be quite a deal when the tour is $5/person and a sharks tooth can go for $20
or more(real good ones). After collecting your led back to home base where
you can look at charts and find the origin and ages of your stones and fossils.
Inside they have an amazing collection of ancient fossils, dinosaur bones
and eggs, and what not. It's an educating couple of hours and the kids really
enjoyed it!

They do have a specific schedule so call for tour times.

7621 Granite Hill Drive in Jurupa Hills

Telephone (909) 685-5815