Bozemanmountain town

Bozeman’s surprisingly hip flagship museum, the Museum of the Rockies, balances a serious paleontology collection with eclectic traveling exhibits about tree frogs and rock-and-roll photography. The museum has a state-of-the-art planetarium and, in summer, a working Victorian homestead, but dinosaur bones are the real draw here. Montana is an archaeologist’s playground, and the brontosaurus fan in your life will be wowed by room after room of reassembled skeletons. The ever-popular T-Rex looms large here—the museum has the largest Tyrannosaurus rex collection anywhere in the world. Head paleontologist (and MacArthur “genius grant” recipient) Jack Horner not only served as a set advisor for the Jurassic Park movies, he’s the inspiration for the series’ main character. Make a reservation three weeks in advance for a guided tour with a volunteer dino-geek.