Rapid City’s Dinosaur Park reopened Monday after a 7-month closure for renovation. Although the park is open, work isn’t expected to be completed until the end of this year, so visitors are advised to drive cautiously.
     Dinosaur Park has been a popular tourist attraction since it was built in the 1930s, but had accessibility issues.
Rapid City Parks and Recreation landscape designer Melissa Petersen says increased accessibility was the main goal of the $3.5-million dollar renovation project.
The work has included rebuilding the main stairs, which Petersen says were steep and unsafeway, and building a new sidewalk from the parking lot to the top of the hill that will make the Dinosaur Park accessible to wheelchairs and strollers.
Access is a little different for now. Petersen says new stairs aren’t ready yet, but that there is a trail to the north of the parking lot that people can go up and access the hill that way
The park is open to the public daily from 5:00 am to 10:00 pm while hours for the Visitor Center and Gift Shop are 9-5:00. You can follow the project online at the Dinosaur Park Construction Update page on Facebook.