Heard Natural Science Museum & Wildlife Sanctuary

We loved it here at Heard! $12 per ticket and free admission for kids under 3 y/o. We had an impromptu summer morning adventure here with our little ones and enjoyed ourselves. We would've loved to have seen more animals and maybe some misters throughout the walkways but we had fun given the great price! There are both indoor and outdoor options. Heard Museum has displays of all sorts of insects, owls, and marsupials, while also including some geology and fossils. Our two year old loved seeing the skunks the most LOL. We also enjoyed the butterfly exhibit but wish it was bigger. The nature trail offers both shorter distances and "longer", both with plenty of shade and rest stops. We had a little family picnic before getting our steps in. Overall it was a fun Saturday morning and I highly recommend you try it out!

OMG, bugs! Spray yourself.....good, and you may enjoy more. Exhibits were nice and we learned some of Texas!

A bit overpriced but still a good experience. The dinosaur trail took our family about 50 minutes to finish from beginning to end. We have a 2 and 3 year old so it might have taken a bit longer since they tend to wander off pretty often. I would definitely say that this place is great if your kids love dinosaurs but it wouldn't be a go-to place for us as a family. Our kids aren't super into dinosaurs but they still liked it. There is also a small playground kind of space for your kids to run around and play. It's like a village with small "buildings" that they can explore. It's a bit outdated but it is nice to have somewhere they can play before you leave. The parking lot is very small but was not full when we went. The staff was very friendly and the grounds were super clean.

Lemurs, and Racoons, and Dinosaurs, Oh my!!!My family and I had a great day at this museum and wildlife sanctuary. It offered lots of hands-on interactive activities to keep my son interested, and a lot of reading material to help us learn about everything we were seeing. My son absolutely loves dinosaurs, we were so happy to see that they have an awesome dinosaur trail where each dinosaur along the trail actually moves and make sounds. It was pretty fun to guess what dinosaur we would see next while walking the trail. If you have time, they also have a variety of other trails you can walk as well. The Lemurs were lots of fun to watch.I highly recommend checking it out for yourself. Great for all ages.

We took the little one here because she is into dinosaurs and she loved the experience. It's a really long drive for us but ultimately it was worth it. She was so excited before we went and afterwards.We bought tickets online in advance. I would suggest doing so, it makes things a bit easier. The dinosaur trail is maybe half mile (?) long and has about 10-12 life-sized dinosaurs of different types. They make noise which gives a realistic feel. Some of them move a bit. Our child was afraid (she's 3) even though she knows they are not real. One of the dinosaurs near the end (right before T-Rex) sprays water which of course the kids love. There is a settlement of old wood cabins after the dinosaurs. Not sure how it fits the theme or its relevance to dinosaurs but it's a place for kids to explore.We did not do the butterfly park--maybe next time. The souvenir store is pretty good and not outrageously priced as one often finds. My two complaints are first, once again, mask signs are everywhere but some people think they are special and don't wear. No one is around to enforce. The bigger problem is parking. Not just in terms of the number of spaces, but the narrowness of the parking lot. The parking lot was obviously built before the era of SUVs. If someone parks behind you, there is no way to pull out. We have a regular car and I was stuck until the guy next to us left and I could use his space to get my car out. If he had not left, we would still be there. It's a real problem. Overall, however, this is a lot of fun, not very expensive, and a quality experience for kids.

Recently went on a trip to Dallas, and on our way back we wanted to try to squeeze one more thing in. We didn't really plan this ahead of time, so this was just something we literally found on-the-go on-route. It ended up being a pretty cool stop.They have a few different things going on, and one of the things that drew me in the most was the Magic Planet exhibit. It just looked cool from the website. And it was pretty interesting, though not exactly what I expected. I was thinking it'd be maybe more immersive and large, like a planetarium. It was more like a very large globe in a small room, and you could play around with it to see things like the earth, moon, other planets, and stuff like tectonic plates. You do have to have a worker there to do it for you though, and I wish we could have played around with it ourselves. I think I would have been more comfortable looking at everything it can do, but I do understand that with something like that they have to be careful opening it up for just anyone to use any time without supervision, so I get it.Another thing I was drawn to was that there's a butterfly garden. Those are always so fun! I was glad that there were a good amount of butterflies in there, not just a few. On the way to the butterfly house, we were able to see some animals outside. They had more unique things, though I can't remember what they were, but I think they were mostly native animals. Inside they had things like fossils, snakes, and more.We only had a short amount of time before we needed to get back on the road, so we didn't see everything, but we hit the main things I was excited about, and I'm glad we squeezed this unplanned thing in on a whim!!

Went on a very hot day so we did part of the outdoors, then the indoors, then the rest of the outdoors. The animatronic dinosaurs are very well done. The trees and such are pretty even though it's been a drought summer. Definitely showing its age. The people working were great!

Staff inside at admission is very much a 5 star experience, they all were very friendly and helpful. They engaged my 6 year old wonderfully when talking with him about dinosaurs while i took care of filling out a form while doing our benefits. We came up to use our reciprocal membership benefits from Ft Worth ... that gets us admission here a few other local museums & a number of others across the country. With that said we are coming from 45 minutes to an hour away to visit here. So it's not going to be a regular stop for us but nice for it to be included. I was really glad we ended up timing our first visit with the dinosaur exhibit being here. The dinosaurs are pretty much set a long a .5 Mile hiking trail ... technically on two of the longer trails that just makes a loop from and back to the main building. Most either came for going on hikes on trails or for the dinosaurs. My 6 year old was pretty much done after checking out the dinosaurs & this little village thing, which isn't bad but also not the most up kept little play area. So we only ended up spending about an hour there. We almost missed the indoor exhibits entirely because it's tucked behind the admission table. My husband missed it entirely cause he already headed out the door to the car when my kid and I noticed it & checked the areas out. I think if we had come during another time, without the dinosaurs, we would have been very disappointed because a majority of this is what amounts to hiking trails. Which we have a lot of nice ones, closer to home that are free. Wonderful for folks that live near by, especially with what looks like a ton of new housing being built up around this place. There are some animals they have here, but we didn't walk down the animal trail. Though from a distance I could tell that my kid would have questioned the outside cages they are kept it ... a number of animals seemed to either be moved inside due to weather or permanently. Some made sense and the indoor areas seemed ok ... like the snakes & tortoise... the Lemurs I kinda wish had more of what the ones at Ft Worth Zoo have, like a more natural environment to what they have in the wild. I did note they have some experiences but they all had to be booked in advance and are somewhat weather permitting. I'm sure in part due to making sure they don't over/under staff on any given day. I would love to see this place have slightly better accommodations for the animals they keep there, as well something during other parts of the year to incentivize kids to be willing to go out on the trails if that is going to be their main draw.

Our 3-year-old is obsessed with dinosaurs, so we managed to schedule a Saturday to take him on the dinosaur trail before the annual exhibit is gone. I must be honest; I was unsure of what to expect. While I knew the exhibit was along a walking trail outdoors, I did not expect the extensive museum displays of plants, animals, and birds native to the area. Nor was I expecting the little animal zoo. Shortly after the indoor exhibits and the dinosaur walk, our son became restless, and we needed to leave. My family and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit and are looking forward to visiting again soon!

Beautiful nature areas and trails, bring your camera ! We love the raised walkways through the trees and preserve areas These pics are all from one walk around the Wood Duck Trail.