Cabazon Dinosaurs

[Stuckasaurus (Dino Dad Reviews)]

Here's a thread for this iconic Californian roadside attraction!
Created by Knott's Berry Farm artist and sculptor Claude Bell (not to be confused with Claude Coats, an artist and Imagineer who worked for Walt Disney), Bell meant for the dinosaurs to attract visitors to his "Wheel Inn Restaurant". If you've ever driven from Los Angeles/Orange County out to Palm Springs, you've probably passed them by, though development has gradually obscured their visibility from the highway.
If you'd like to know more, I've written about my experience there at Dino Dad Reviews. I even paid to go inside their little "Dinosaur Walk" park, which wasn't really worth the cost. I recommend just taking a picture of the dinosaurs from the parking lot.

https://dinodadreviews.com/2021/10/08/cabazon-dinosaurs/

[Stuckasaurus (Dino Dad Reviews)]

I do however recommend checking out the gift shop that is built right inside the over-sized Brontosaurus statue, however, if only for the sheer novelty of it! A vintage Carnegie Mountain sits tantalizingly on a high shelf like a trophy, but sadly nothing quite that good is actually sold there these days. I did however enjoy discovering these human evolution busts on the inside! Looking at archival photos, I'm pretty sure Claude Bell had originally fully painted them, but they are now painted the same white as the rest of the interior walls, presumably by the creationists who briefly owned the place after Claude's death and didn't want to draw guests eyes to them. A part of me suspects that "Suzzie" is not the original namecard for that australopithecine-looking hominid, either. Maybe somebody plastered it over so they wouldn't have to talk about the dreaded "apemen"?