Dinosaur National Monument

We have often been asked how we plan our trips and generally we say “loosely” meaning some preplanned stops and some spontaneous.  This trip back from Denver is totally spontaneous.  Before our breakdown, we were to meet our son in Salt Lake City and travel back to California.  That got re-planned.  Rather than drive boring Hwy 80 for four days back home, we wanted to make a trip of it, so our first stop was Steamboat.  Continuing on the Lincoln Hwy, we stopped next at Dinosaur NM.  We have fond memories of being here in a lightning storm many years ago.  No storm this time but what wonderful sights.

We arrived just in time for a brief talk on the pictographs and petroglyphs of the Fremont peoples.  These beautiful paintings and carvings date back to about 450 A.D.

We then drove to Josie Bassett Morris’ cabin.  This remarkable woman was brave, hearty, and able to enjoy a solitary life.  Her family homesteaded here in 1877.  Josie, after five marriages, homesteaded her own land in 1913.  She lived in the cabin for fifty years, sometimes with her son and daughter-in-law and her grandchildren, but mostly working her ranch alone.

In the evening we attended a star party to view Saturn, Jupiter and the Ring Nebula.

We did have a great campsite right next to the Green River.  This is a view of the site from a spot above the campground.

The next morning we went to the Quarry Exhibit Hall.   The building covers the rock wall filled with ancient remains.

 With great foresight, Earl Douglass, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, discovered and preserved this wondrous place.  He began excavating in 1909.   Five days after his first discovery, people flocked to the area.   He knew he had to protect the land and its treasures.  In 1915 the Carnegie Quarry became Dinosaur NM.  Work on the rock face is being done to this day.

A large section of the Morrison Formation of the quarry, laden with fossils, was distributed to such premier institutions as the Smithsonian, Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, and the Natural History Museums of NY and LA.  Douglass also made sure that fossils in their natural state were preserved on site for visitors to see and paleontologists to study.  And you get to touch a few of the bones.

 The most common fossils are from the Camerasaurus. This is a youngster.

Here is Anna Lee next to an adult's femur

Allosaurus

and Stegosuarus also left good remains.

 Displays show plant and animal lifeforms that were contemporaries of these dinosaurs like this shell of a dinochelys turtle, 149 million years old.

Erosion has carved stone images of the ancient inhabitants into the mountains stirring one's imagination.

Leaving the park we decided to disagree with the GPS and choose our own path, not an Interstate. 
Our drive took us through the blazing Flaming Gorge and past these chalk mountains.

Now, with a reward of dinner at the Red Iguana in Salt Lake City, we take I 80 home to clean up and get ready for our next adventure.