The government was shut down but the camping and trails were open so Dinosaur was not impacted by the idiocy in Washington.
Leann picked another great campsite.
The campground was very quiet and the weather was perfect: blue skies, warm days and cool nights.
We picked this trail since it left from the campground so we did not have to get back in the van.
The river is green, go figure.
Tumbleweed
Dinosaur is prettier than I thought it would be.
A Geologist would love this place. So would a paleontologist.
- How was the park formed?
- Geological uplift: The Uinta Mountains, located at the eastern end of the monument, were formed during the Laramide Orogeny about 70 to 40 million years ago, creating a large anticline structure.
- Differential erosion: Over millions of years, wind, water, and ice have eroded the uplifted rock layers. The different rock layers eroded at varying rates, revealing the colorful, layered landscape and exposing the fossils. Erosion exposed 24 distinct rock layers with remnants from nearly a billion years ago
This is a large patch of poison ivy in fall color. Leann is very allergic to the plant and gave it a wide berth.
Box canyons were used to keep livestock from wandering off, they were not getting out of this.
Leaving the box canyon
Does this look like the sorting hat from Harry Potter?
This is the end of the trail and we had not seen the petroglyphs. We turned around and tried to figure out how we missed them.
Success, the petroglyphs were off a short side trail that we missed. In our defense it was not marked very well.
Back in the van and stopped at the next overlook and decided to hike off trail
Turtle Rock
We did not plan a long hike for this day but ended up adding 2 trails together and then some more.
This is basically dried mud, I can’t imagine the mess made when it rains.
This ridge looks like the back of a dinosaur.
Due to the government closure we did not see the fossil quarry, we plan on going back since there is so much to do here.
HAPPY TRAILS, STEVE