Today was very dinosaur themed. Our route took us from Vernal, UT to Dinosaur, CO. The course was fairly short so we took a detour to go explore Dinosaur National Monument. The park was very beautiful as national parks tend to be, but the main attraction was the fossils. Situated on the southeast flank of the Uinta Mountains, where the borders of Colorado and Utah converge, this iconic National Park offered a rich, immersive experience into the world of dinosaurs and geology, and the cultural history of ancient peoples and pioneers.
We first went to the interpretive center and then took a free shuttle to the Quarry Exhibit Hall, located over the world-famous Carnegie Quarry. The building offered an extraordinary view of the preserved dinosaur fossils still embedded in the rock. With nearly 1,500 dinosaur bones visible, the Quarry Exhibit Hall was an enthralling sight. There were even fossils that they let visitors touch which certainly made it a hands-on experience.
Eventually, we made our way to the small town of Dinosaur, CO. The town used to be a water provider during the oil boom in the area but later was mostly abandoned for a number of decades. When the national monument was established, the town re-named itself from Artesia to Dinosaur. Along with the town name, the street names included “Triceritops Terrace”, “Brontosaurus Beulevard”, “Antrodemus Alley”, “Camptosaurus Crescent”, “Brachtosaurus Bypass”, and “Diplodicus Dr”. The town mayor graciously offered to let us camp in the town park which was of course full of dinsoaur statues.
There was a large thuderstorm so we stayed in a motel in a nearby city in the end, but all of us learned and laughed a lot from our day full of dinosaurs.
-Leo