Drive-thru dinosaur event opens in Salinas Sports Complex

SALINAS, Calif. (KION) Families will be now able to travel back to the pre-historic age with Jurassic Empire at the Salinas Sports Complex.

The drive-thru event features over 60 dinosaurs and mammals, dating back to 150 million years ago.

Families lined up to see their favorite dinosaurs at the Jurassic Empire. Cars drive in through the gates to see life size animatronic replicas of dinosaurs. For many of the families here, this is a much needed distraction from the pandemic.

Abigale Venegas took her children to see the dinosaurs after not attending events for a whole year.

"They haven't been out in about a year now since the pandemic started and he's really into dinosaurs so we found the opportunity to come and we stay in our cars and don''t go around anybody," says Venegas.

Some of the kids that visited the dinosaur display did several rounds of the exhibit to see their dinosaur friend one last time. Some even brought their favorite dinosaur toys and shirts.

S. Thomas visited the exhibit today and was thrilled to see the moving dinosaurs.

"I really like how they move and talk. My favorite thing in there would probably be those eggs that move or the dino band," says Thomas.

This exhibit also gave visitors a chance to see a childhood interest up close afters seeing movie like Jurassic Park.

"I'm excited. This is my first time seeing these dinosaurs and I do like dinosaurs. Since I was small, I used to watch documentaries of dinosaurs and that's what pretty much got me into liking a lot of dinosaurs," says Uriel Ortiz, a dinosaur enthusiast.

The exhibit will be open this weekend from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. For those that didn't get a chance to see it, tickets are also available February 21st, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28.

KION's Stephanie Aceves will have more with how families feel about the exhibit at 5:00 p.m.