Bean Life Science Museum
4.8(2.0K)google
4.6(21)yelp
ScienceWildlifeEducationalFamilyKids
Overview
Located on the Brigham Young University campus, this comprehensive natural history institution houses an extraordinary, multi-story collection of beautifully preserved taxidermy wildlife specimens from around the globe. The museum offers highly engaging, free educational galleries exploring evolutionary biology, ecosystems, and conservation, complete with interactive discovery play spaces for children and live reptile wildlife shows.
Practical Info
Mon10:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Tue10:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Wed10:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Thu10:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Fri10:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Sat10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
SunClosed
Suggested Duration1.5-2.5 hours
Best TimeRecommended on non-holiday school-year weekdays after 2:00 PM when the massive morning elementary school field trip groups begin to exit. This timing gives young families immediate, queue-free access to explore the multi-story glass wildlife dioramas and touch-tank educational biodiversity matrices inside the quiet galleries without crowds. Admission is completely free.
Getting TherePositioned directly north of the MOA museum on the BYU campus corner at 1430 N Input Road. While sharing the same University Avenue approach, note this crucial low-friction shortcut: the life science facility provides its own separate, dedicated parallel public visitor spaces directly fronting the main entrance arches which offer completely free vehicular parking without any pass checks.
Travel Tips
- Mandatory Sunday Closures & Holiday Interruption Rules: As an extension of the BYU campus structure, this scientific repository remains completely dark on Sundays and observes total closures on major national holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
- Free Entry Tickets & Early Seating for Live Wildlife Demos: While general general admission costs nothing, the hourly Live Reptile Demonstrations have strict fire-code limits. Seat counts cap out quickly; arrive at the amphitheater stage 15 minutes early.
- Strict Food Exclusion & Backpack Storage Laws: To safe-keep rare taxidermy mounts from pest exposure, raw snacks, coffee cups, or open drinks are completely barred past the turnstile. Oversized tourist packs or extra-wide double strollers must be stowed away in entry lockers.
Reviews
Positive
- Affiliated with BYU, it houses a breathtaking collection of world-class, lifelike wildlife taxidermy displays that are 100% awe-inspiring.
- The 3-story venue is pristine and modern, featuring flat accessible wheelchair ramps throughout, with plenty of modern family restrooms.
- The student volunteers are gentle and highly knowledgeable, hosting scheduled live reptile close-up talks that provide full educational fun for kids.
- Most amazingly, this top-tier museum is completely free to the public with zero general admission fees, standing as an industry model of high value.
Heads up
- Being inside a busy university campus, surrounding road signs are sparse, making it easy for out-of-town drivers to get lost in the campus grid.
- During weekday peaks, campus parking gets incredibly tight, often packing the museum's small lot and forcing visitors to walk far from paid garages.
- The museum lacks active play areas like climbing slides for toddlers, relying mostly on static taxidermy stands, which can bore very young kids.
- The academic zoological description plates are English-only, severely lacking multilingual QR translations, causing confusion for foreign tourists.