Natural History Museum of Utah
Utah's official natural history collection in the copper-clad Rio Tinto Center above the U of U — paleontology, archaeology, and the deep story of the Colorado Plateau.
Also known as: NHMU, Utah Museum of Natural History, NHMU at Rio Tinto Center
The Natural History Museum of Utah occupies the Rio Tinto Center, a 163,000-square-foot copper-clad building set into a 17-acre site in the Wasatch foothills above the University of Utah's Research Park. Operated by the University of Utah, the museum holds the official paleontological, archaeological, and biological collections for the state of Utah — over 1.6 million objects spanning Native art, Fremont and Ancestral Puebloan archaeology, Pleistocene fossils, and the celebrated Cretaceous dinosaur collections from the Kaiparowits and Wahweap formations of the Grand Staircase–Escalante. The galleries trace the deep history of the Colorado Plateau and Great Basin: Past Worlds, First Peoples, Land, Life, Sky, and a glass-walled paleo lab where visitors watch fossil prep happen in real time. The Museum's location at the boundary of the Salt Lake Valley and the Wasatch Range is itself part of the experience — the building's roof terraces look out over the city to the lake and the desert beyond.
Location
301 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108
Phone: (801) 581-6927
Website: https://nhmu.utah.edu/
Hours
- Mon: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Tue: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Wed: 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM
- Thu: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Fri: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Sat: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
- Sun: 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Open seven days a week. Late hours on Wednesdays until 9 PM. Last admission 30 minutes before closing.
Admission
- Adult: $9
- Child: $6
- Senior: $7
Youth ages 3–12 are $6; ages 13–24 and seniors 65+ are $7. Members and infants under 3 free. University of Utah students free with U Card.
Exhibits
- Past Worlds — The flagship paleontology gallery — Cretaceous dinosaurs of the Kaiparowits and Wahweap, Pleistocene mammals, and the deep history of life in Utah.
- First Peoples — Archaeology and ethnography of the Fremont, Ancestral Puebloan, Ute, Goshute, Paiute, Shoshone, and Navajo cultures of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau.
- Land — The geologic story of Utah — the Wasatch Front, the Colorado Plateau, the Great Basin, and the rivers that connect them.
- Life — Living biodiversity of Utah's mountain, desert, and wetland ecosystems.
- Sky — Astronomy and the planetary context of life on Earth.
- Paleo Prep Lab — Glass-walled working laboratory where visitors observe real-time fossil preparation.
Halls & Collections
- Past Worlds dinosaur gallery
- First Peoples archaeology hall