Starting June 12, "the park is open" -- and the Jurassic Park storyline continues, 22 years after Steven Spielberg first envisioned Isla Nublar for the big screen. But what places on Earth actually come close to a dinosaur theme park? More than you might think.

Jurassic World is real -- inasmuch as indie filmmaker Colin Trevorrow (director of Safety Not Guaranteed) was given $150 million to imagine what a luxe theme park full of genetically modified dinosaurs might look like. The team behind the new future blockbuster, opening today, even created a fairly incredible marketing campaign where families can visit the Jurassic World website and "plan a trip" to Isla Nublar, the fictional island where the movie takes place. Just ride the ferry from Costa Rica to the park, where you can check into the Hilton Isla Nublar Resort, take a guided safari tour of Gallimimus Valley, hope to see the first-ever Indominus rex, and dine at Winston's Steakhouse (try the Chilean sea bass!). There's even a Margaritaville.

"If Jurassic World was real, would you like to go?" Wiredasked Trevorrow recently.

The director's response? "Maybe an air tour. People die there."

Fair point. So rather than become T-rex chow, we rounded up the locations that evoke the otherworldly -- parks that are larger than life, where wild creatures own the terrain and you can almost imagine a velociraptor poking its claw through the ferns (or around a kitchen door). Who needs fiction when reality is so spectacular?

THE SON DOONG CAVE, PHONG NHA-KE NATIONAL PARK, VIETNAM

How big is Son Doong Cave? It's five miles long, 650 feet high, and 500 feet wide. It could hold an entire city block of Manhattan, including 40-story skyscrapers. It has its own lush vegetation where sunlight filters in from sinkholes above, and clouds even form near the ceiling when moisture condenses there. The world's tallest stalagmites tower 260 feet in the air, and limestone "cave pearls" the size of baseballs litter the cave floor. This amazing underground cathedral is a potent reminder that there are still remarkable landscapes on Earth waiting to be discovered. -- Ken Jennings, "The World's Largest Cave Could House a 40-Story Skyscraper"

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FIORDLAND NATIONAL PARK, NEW ZEALAND

If you can’t travel to Jurassic World, how about Middle-earth? New Zealand’s South Island was a central filming location for much of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Fiordland National Park—with its misty mountains and massive glacial lakes -- the most mind-blowing of the lot. Go "tramping" (hiking) along mountain faces, through dense, electric green forests, and past waterfalls (the Routeburn Track is highly recommended); or visit a Te Anau Glowworm Caves, a 12,000-year-old cave system where bioluminescent insects light the way. -- Laura Dannen Redman

REDWOOD NATIONAL PARK, CALIFORNIA

Down the Avenue of the Giants, 32 miles of redwoods line the highway, some rising 300-plus feet in the air (the tallest was said to to be bigger than the Statue of Liberty—or five times the size of the tallest dinosaur). Some of the oldest redwoods have celebrated their 2,000th birthday, but to really comprehend this ancient landscape, it’s best to explore on foot. Park in Jedediah Smith Redwood State Park and walk the half mile to Stout Grove. It’s like a natural cathedral: branches interlocking way above, a soft blanket of needles on the ground, and redwoods standing ram-rod straight in silent contemplation all around you. —L.D.R.

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