Waco Mammoth National Monument

Waco Mammoth National Monument

Waco Mammoth National Monument
4.5
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
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  • CaptainSPI
    Sugar Land, Texas898 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Mammoths in Texas
    The Mammoth National Historic Park (created in 2015) is one of a kind although it’s only beginning to be developed. This area is thought to have been a Columbian mammoth nursery where a catastrophic flooding event resulted in the death of 19 of these mothers and juveniles. Other animals have been discovered at this site; it is thought that many more will be unearthed in the future. Mammoths probably lived in this area for about 130,000 years; now think about where humans have lived that long. The gift shop is reasonable and the staff are highly competent and friendly. This is a must see!
    Visited April 2023
    Written 8 May 2023
  • michaelpoto4
    Boston, Massachusetts127 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    An Interesting & Engaging Way To Step Back In Time & Spend 1-3 Hours
    My son and I took a 45 min. to 1 hr. Guided small group tour of this paleontology site where fossil beds of Columbian Mammoth remains are showcased. There are also fossils of a few other prehistoric animals as well. The tour guides are extremely knowledgeable and friendly. The site sits on many acres of park lands with trails to explore the area. A very relaxing way to spend a couple of hours learning a little about the creatures that lived at the time of the ice age.
    Visited May 2023
    Travelled with family
    Written 15 May 2023
  • amfh
    The Colony, Texas358 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Don't miss it
    Don't miss this opportunity to see this spectacular paleontology find of ancient Columbian Mammoth fossils in situ. It's a nursery group mass death site, with females and juveniles... most of those bones are being studied at Baylor university but you'll be able to see a male Mammoth found by accident when the original dig was deemed complete and a nearby hill was excavated to obtain fill dirt. What a bargain for only $5 for seniors, $6 for adults. Our guide, Josie, was just wonderful, but you can do the short tour unaccompanied. Plan to spend about an hour to see everything, or longer if you have lots of questions.
    Visited May 2023
    Travelled as a couple
    Written 29 May 2023
  • oilguy57
    Tucson, Arizona160 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    A wonderful addition to the National Park Service
    This is a very special fossil site, in a near-urban setting. I visited on a Saturday so I did not see any school groups. I arrived early and had to wait for the staff to open the gates, but that enabled me to be in the first Ranger-led tour of the day. Well worth the few dollars for the guided tour to have the Ranger explain the site and the history behind it. But you need to be interested in this sort of thing! I'm a geologist and I've wanted to see it for several years. If you don't really care about fossils and geo-history...maybe take a pass. Small, but decent gift shop. All the staff were enthusiastic and wanted to show off their park. Our Ranger was exceptional at engaging with our group. It did get a bit noisy in the dig shelter when the second got there before we'd left, but not too bad.
    Visited May 2023
    Written 9 July 2023
  • Dewayne P
    Elizabethtown, Kentucky1,858 contributions
    4.0 of 5 bubbles
    Dig-ging this site!
    This is a neat site. There is plenty of free parking. The parks service has a small gift shop/restroom, and a tent set up with information. The tour is $6 where you are led by a ranger down to the fossil site. It is worth the trip if you are in the area.
    Visited September 2023
    Travelled with friends
    Written 5 September 2023
  • Kevin B
    Mount Juliet, Tennessee2,325 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Nice site!
    This is a very interesting national monument and one that's not well known. We had decided to drive up to Dallas from Houston for a Rangers game and we detoured to Waco specifically to go here as we're big fans of the National Park Service and try to visit as many sites as we can. The Waco Mammoth National Monument was created in 2015 and is a paleontologic dig site. It consists of several fossilized mammoths and some are still in situ, which is really neat to see. There's a walkway above the dig site where you can read information on which bones you're seeing beneath you and there are rangers available for questions. We stayed here about an hour (it's a small site), but we're really glad we detoured here!
    Visited August 2023
    Travelled as a couple
    Written 19 December 2023
  • TrailTrekker15
    Tallahassee, Florida3,971 contributions
    5.0 of 5 bubbles
    Unique Archeological Site
    My wife and I visited Waco Mammoth and toured the archeological site. The tour is guided and does have a small fee. It was completely worth it! There were several skeletons visible in the rock including a couple of Colombian Mammoths and an ancient camel. The dig is still active with a worker actively removing dirt in the dig. After the tour, we hiked along one of the trails through the beautiful hill country scenery. The monument was a bit crowded and parking was limited. It was great place to visit and I’d recommend adding to any trip in the area.
    Visited March 2024
    Travelled as a couple
    Written 15 March 2024
These reviews are the subjective opinion of Tripadvisor members and not of TripAdvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews.

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Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

Popular mentions

4.5
4.5 of 5 bubbles1,243 reviews
Excellent
822
Very good
339
Average
60
Poor
17
Terrible
5

Hatzlacha
Virginia909 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2024 • Couples
I give full credit to the young ranger guide who gave us the tour of the building / site. He was highly enthusiastic and seemed to know a great deal about both this species of mammoths as well as the site at large. It is impressive to quickly learn how much research has been done (and is ongoing) at this site. It's a bit like a natural history mystery tour, since you want to figure out what actually lead to this group of mammoths' deaths. Getting here and parking is easy, though it gets quite busy quickly the weekend we were there.
Written 16 March 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

TrailTrekker15
Tallahassee, FL3,971 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Mar 2024 • Couples
My wife and I visited Waco Mammoth and toured the archeological site. The tour is guided and does have a small fee. It was completely worth it! There were several skeletons visible in the rock including a couple of Colombian Mammoths and an ancient camel. The dig is still active with a worker actively removing dirt in the dig. After the tour, we hiked along one of the trails through the beautiful hill country scenery. The monument was a bit crowded and parking was limited. It was great place to visit and I’d recommend adding to any trip in the area.
Written 15 March 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

KarenC0919
Bridgewater, NJ15 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2024 • Couples
Being right in the area we felt we should add this to our itinerary. Spent about an hour at the National Park and took advantage of the guided tour that was offered. It was interesting and informative without being too long.
Written 29 January 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

kleic
San Antonio, TX1,024 contributions
2.0 of 5 bubbles
Jan 2024 • Couples
I was so excited to take a detour here as we were driving from Dallas to San Antonio and so disappointed in, well, everything. The fact that you're greeted with an outdoor souvenir stand kind of tells you everything. This is technically a National Monument but it is run more like a roadside attraction; the film clips (no actual movie) inside the tiny Visitor's Center are outdated, the talk is formulaic, and most of what you actually want to see (or at least what I wanted to see) is at a museum at Baylor in Waco. Cool to think there were mammoths walking around here but you can think about that without making a stop here.
Written 23 January 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Hank M
1 contribution
2.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2023 • Family
Your America the Beautiful Pass doesn’t work here. Even though it’s a NPS site. Rude staff, guides rude to kids. One telling a kid to “shut up, I’m taking you’ll know nothing if you keep on talking okay?.” don’t go. No NPS rangers all of the staff are city employees wearing knock off NPS uniforms. One said she worked for the National Park Service to multiple visitors when I talked to her about what other sites and parks she worked at (I am a National Park Service ranger) she immediately said she wasn’t and was sorry. Only to lie again to someone near the gift shop. My kid loves paleontology. This was a disappointment. I was buying him a toy and sticker the guy behind the counter was immediately agitated by some of my son’s questions talking to himself said “I don’t have time for this.” And just ignored him. I put his souvenirs away. Won’t be coming back and will be letting the NPS Superintendent and the Region know about Waco Mammoth.
Written 30 December 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Adam R
South Dakota70 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Dec 2023 • Family
It's a newer and small addition to the National Park Service inventory, but we'll worth it. We are very fortunate to have access to places like this.
Written 28 December 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Kevin B
Mount Juliet, TN2,325 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Aug 2023 • Couples
This is a very interesting national monument and one that's not well known. We had decided to drive up to Dallas from Houston for a Rangers game and we detoured to Waco specifically to go here as we're big fans of the National Park Service and try to visit as many sites as we can. The Waco Mammoth National Monument was created in 2015 and is a paleontologic dig site. It consists of several fossilized mammoths and some are still in situ, which is really neat to see. There's a walkway above the dig site where you can read information on which bones you're seeing beneath you and there are rangers available for questions. We stayed here about an hour (it's a small site), but we're really glad we detoured here!
Written 19 December 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Austin T
Nashville, TN24 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Oct 2023 • Couples
I’ll be honest, this wasn’t one of our top things we were looking forward to, but it more than surprised us. The informative guided walk up to the dig site was great, and the site itself was so interesting. Being so close to fossils of mammoths, camels, and tortoises was so cool — and you can get VERY close! We were pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the visit.
Written 11 October 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Dewayne P
Elizabethtown, KY1,858 contributions
4.0 of 5 bubbles
Sept 2023 • Friends
This is a neat site. There is plenty of free parking. The parks service has a small gift shop/restroom, and a tent set up with information. The tour is $6 where you are led by a ranger down to the fossil site. It is worth the trip if you are in the area.
Written 5 September 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

Jeremy W
Granbury, TX32 contributions
5.0 of 5 bubbles
Sept 2023 • Family
Clean park. Friendly ranger that was patient with young children asking questions. The exhibit was air conditioned. You get to see the fossils as they were discovered
Written 4 September 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.

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Waco Mammoth National Monument - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024) - Tripadvisor

Frequently Asked Questions about Waco Mammoth National Monument

Waco Mammoth National Monument is open:
  • Sun - Sat 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM