Visiting The March Field Air Museum | Riverside County, CA

Over my holiday break, Kairi and I drove down to the March Field Air Museum near Moreno Valley for some rare father-daughter time.  I first noticed the museum years ago on my way out to Palm Springs. The Museum is Located so close to the 215 freeway that you can see most of the planes as you drive past.  Seeing the aircraft caught my eye, so I looked the place up and made a mental note to visit someday. I never expected that visit would happen years later with a kid of my own. So naturally, I was excited to get in there to do some long overdue poking.The March Field Air Museum didn’t disappoint!  It’s home to many of our country’s most iconic military planes.  In addition to the aircraft, the March Field Air Museum is full of interactive models and documentary videos that make it a great place to take the kids to learn about our past (Just make sure they aren’t touching anything they shouldn’t).  Worth a visit if you’re in the area.

Our Experience

The March Field Air Museum can be broken into two areas.  The main hanger, and the outside field.

Main hanger

Entering the main hanger, you must first go through the gift shop to purchase your tickets.  Once in you’ll be standing right in front of the mythical SR-71. Built in the 60’s it’s one of the fastest planes in the world at over 2150 mph.  Surrounding the SR-71 is an interactive kid zone, NASA control room, and a handful of smaller exhibits to explore.Adjacent to the Main Hanger is an Exhibit Hall full of uniforms and bombers jackets from various conflicts.  The display that stood out to me was a uniform of a North Vietnamese soldier. I couldn’t get over how crappy his sandals were.  Crazy to think they fought a jungle war in flip-flops.

Just past the Exhibit Hall is the Heritage Hangar and it’s full of tin cans.  I mean…. a tribute to some of the worlds first fighter planes. Honestly, a few of them genuinely looked like they shouldn’t have been able to fly!  Hats off to the aviators that we’re crazy enough to take off in those flying buckets!

Outside field

Getting outside to walk in between the planes was a lot of fun with Kairi.  I tracked down and taught her about some of my favorite planes.

• The F-14 Tomcat made famous from the movie, Top Gun.  
• The B-52 Bomber which is a 60-year-old behemoth still flies to this day.  You would think that the planes would have been replaced with something newer by now, but they’re scheduled to continue operating through 2040!  I’ve even heard stories about new B-52 pilots flying the same plane as their grandfather did in the past! How crazy is that?
• The B-17 Flying Fortress was a bomber in World War 2 that fundamentally changed that way Wars were fought.  Many of my favorite historical audiobooks about the war were about the crews of these very bombers.

The Airfield is covered in dozens more aircraft that I’m sad to say I know nothing about.  Hopefully, I can make another trip out there someday to learn about them on one of their tours.

Visitor information for March Field Air Museum

Address
22550 Van Buren Blvd.
Riverside, CA 92518
(951) 902-5949

Price
Adults: $10 (12 years and older)
Children: $5 (5-11 years old)
Kids under 4: Free
Active Duty with ID card: Free
Military Veterans – Free admission on selected dates

Hours
Open Year-Round
Tuesday-Sunday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information, please visit their official website https://www.marchfield.org/

March Field Air Museum Is Worth A Visit

It took us about an hour and a half to explore the March Field Air Museum. I’m sure we could have stayed even longer if we had stopped at all the displays, but I didn’t want to get caught in traffic on the way home.

Kairi loves flying (She’s been flying since she was 4 months old) and had a lot of fun trying to keep up with me as I taught her everything I knew about the planes. It was a great little trip, and I do recommend The March Field Air Museum to you if you’re looking for something interesting to do with your kiddos.

More From Us?

We “try” to post as much as we can.  Currently, things have been hectic, so posts haven’t been consistent.  If you are looking for more things to do in the Inland Empire consider heading north on the 215 to check out the quirky “Orginal first McDonald’s Museum.”  The museum is a small homage to the real history of McDonald’s. 

If you’re looking for more “seasonal” things to do in the Inland Empire consider checking out The Mission Inn’s Festival of Lights during the Holidays.  In spring go for a stroll in Walker Canyon to see the wild poppy’s.

Thankfully we have almost a dozen articles that are just about done. They need a final glance over and some images.  Be sure I come back soon. We’ll be posting even more local things to do in California as well as our Portugal and Australia travel itineraries soon!  

At the moment, I’m finally working our Portugal travel video, which is what I love to do most and the whole reason why we even started this website.  Here’s a link to the latest one we’ve posted on the site. Our Laos Travel Video