After our free breakfast we checked out, gassed up, and headed to the Utah side of Dinosaur National Monument. Got to the visitor center around 10:30 AM and caught the next shuttle to the Fossil Discovery Trail. The trail is not reachable by private vehicle due to the construction on the new Dinosaur Quarry visitor center. As we were shuttled to the trail head we saw mud on the road as a result of the two rare storms that hit the day before. No such danger this morning, however. Just some popcorn clouds. Despite temperatures in the mid-80s it was hotter than Hades. Luckily we had our dorky Tilley hats and bottled water to see us through.
The first stop, Mowry Shale, was disappointing. While we were supposed to see a fossil of some sea critter we couldn’t find it. We did see, however, two pictographs just prior to entering that part of the trail so it wasn’t a total loss. There was this shape that looked kind of like a crown or people or something and another that was a four legged critter. I know it wasn’t a horse (because horses weren’t introduced from Europe yet) but beyond that I have no idea. These artists weren’t exactly Vermeer.
Horse (?) pictograph, DNM, Utah
Next moved on to the Morrison layer, the layer where the dinosaur fossils were found first in the early 1900s. Carnegie sent a guy to “bring back something big” for his museum. And how! The quarry was excavated for 83 years and yielded many new species and much greater understanding about dinosaurs. In the (now closed) visitor center there is a wall with 1,500+ bones — hate that we missed it, maybe we’ll get up there again. In the cliff face we were walking along were several bones left in situ for visitors like us to get a sense of what it would’ve been like to come upon them the first time. The paleontologists aren’t bothering to excavate more of the layer (despite there being bones that could obviously be excavated) because they’ve learned such a tremendous amount from that layer that they’ve moved on to other ones.
A Ranger pointed out a humerus, a femur of a large plant-eater (think Brontosaurus), three metatarsals from a large meat-eater (probably an Allosaurus), a pelvis (which was very shiny and easier to spot than many of the other bones), a small rib, and several vertebrae. Michelle was amazed, as were the kids and I, because many of the bones were hard to spot — I suppose that’s what going to Paleontological State University will get you, the ability to spot them. The Ranger also told us about a skull they found six inches below the surface with basically a super Geiger counter (detecting uranium 235). Talk about a jackpot since the instrument could only detect less than a foot under the surface. One scary moment when I almost backed off the cliff and had to pinwheel my arms to stay standing — it wouldn’t have killed me but it would have hurt for sure. Whew. Finished up the layer by having Addison point to a fossil and Genetta look surprised like she had just found it — fun times. Yes, those white arrows are painted on the rock to make the fossil easy to spot for us tourists making the trick for the “Look, I just found a fossil!” picture to cover it up with your hand.
Dinosaur vertebrae, DNM, Utah
Plant-eating dinosaur femur, DNM, Utah
Finally we skipped the Stump layer. Not only was it very muddy but the Ranger said that it wasn’t impressive at all — just some tiny things barely recognizable as ancient clams. Woooo-eee!
Rocks, DNM, Utah
Back at the shuttle depot while waiting for the shuttle a man asked what size feet I had (you’d be amazed how many people ask that). It led to a great conversation about both our groups’ travels. He recommended going to the Chaco Culture National Historic Park when we do our southwest trip in a few years time. He also said that the 31 mile drive in Dinosaur National Monument on the Colorado side was disappointing and a much better drive was to go about 20 miles towards Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area (just north of Vernal, Utah). He also recommended going down to Grand Junction and the Colorado National Monument but when we told him we were doing Rocky Mountain National Park instead he agreed that was better.
After returning to the visitor center we drove back to Vernal (and past the pink dinosaur statue with the odd eyelashes), got some money from the ATM (having to pay cash for dinner last night wiped us out), and headed north towards Flaming Gorge. The guy was right, what a beautiful drive! Lots of beautiful colored layers (yellow, gray, red) and helpful signs like “Produces Oil”, “Dinosaur Remains Here”, etc. There was also a very nice reservoir that Addison and I took photos of. We passed through a mining operation and a stretch of road with 8% grade and ten switchbacks with a gain of 4,000 feet. A storm was gathering, however, so we turned around and headed back down. The terrain was getting less interesting anyhow so it was just as well.
Pink dinosaur statue, Vernal, Utah
View from the road to Flaming Gorge NRA, Utah
Headed east into Colorado, stopping at the welcome center at Dinosaur, Colorado for a free map and lunch at the adjacent B and B Family Restaurant. The place was a bit run-down but the food was good and very reasonably priced and the people were very friendly. Their menu was had Flinstones / dinosaur motif and they had a Brontosaurus Burger — a two pound burger. Now back in college I could eat a Pizza Hut Pan Supreme in a single sitting and I might have been stupid enough to try to eat a two pound burger. Being older I’ve grown to realize that maybe eating that wouldn’t be the smartest thing so I settled on the one-third pound burger instead. Yeah, I’m a wimp!
Left Dinosaur and cruised across northwestern Colorado towards the night’s rest stop in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The terrain was desert that gradually gave way to increased scrub then finally prairie and even some trees. I was a bit sad at this transition as I knew we wouldn’t be seeing the arid landscape again on this trip. The sparseness of the land was amazing — at one point we were sixty miles from the nearest gas station and there was almost ninety miles between towns. Could you imagine a stretch from Winston-Salem to Raleigh with not a single house?
Arid landscape, Western Colorado
Finally got into Steamboat Springs about 6 PM though we saw the mountain with its ski runs (of course not covered with snow, it being July) long before. Steamboat Springs is a nice town with lots of up-scale shopping and such. Heck, even the McDonald’s and Wendy’s look very much like chalets. Checked in to our hotel and relaxed a bit. Michelle kept dropping interesting tidbits about the town from the welcome information: 300+ inches of annual snowfall (almost 30 feet!), the mountain can handle 33,000 skiers an hour, their real estate market had completely cratered since the 2007 peak, that sort of thing.
Steamboat, Colorado
We went to the Smokehouse for dinner. We had “bleu balls” as an appetizer — basically ham and cheese wrapped in chicken meat and fried — not bad. Michelle loved her pulled pork sandwich and Genetta loved the smoky flavor of her ribs. Addison didn’t care for his as much. I had beef brisket and, while tasty enough, was disappointed by the serving size. Still, not that bad a meal, if a bit pricey — but hey, Steamboat Springs, right?
Afterward we window shopped some though most stores were closed. There was a store selling Western attire that was open, however, and Genetta got some boots — Michelle had promised her some long ago. Headed back to the room, watched some TV, and went to bed to rest up for our last full day of our Western USA trip.
Route for July 22, 2010