High Desert kids dig ‘Return of the Dinosaurs’

Central Oregonians took a journey back to prehistoric times this weekend in Redmond.

About 65 million years back, to be exact — to the time of dinosaurs.

Jurassic Quest brought “Return of the Dinosaurs” to the Hooker Creek Event Center at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds on Saturday and Sunday.

The exhibit featured more than 50 moving replicas of life-sized dinosaurs.

Kids also got to try their hands at working as paleontologists; digging through sandboxes, searching for fossils.

Hundreds attended the event each day.

Other activities included a ‘Dino Bounce’ area, face-painting and dinosaur rides.

“The dinosaurs in there looked — they looked really realistic, and they looked really real,” 11-year-old Bend resident Riley Johnson said Sunday.

Nine-year-old Emma Savage of Bend said, “I wanted to learn how their body structures moved in each place, and I thought it was really cool how it looked like they were breathing on their own.”

The educational exhibit also featured fun facts about the dinosaurs and their habits while they lived 65 million years ago.

The collection featured dinosaurs from three time periods.