Road Trip VIII – Dinosaur National Monument

I think this was my favorite stop. We stayed at the Dinosaur Inn in Vernal Utah. The people were pleasant and the food was marvelous. There is a museum in town and it was a short drive to the park. It is definitely worth doing.

There are dinosaur statues outside the Utah Field House of Natural History. Some of the statutes reflect the thinking of the 1960’s and have the tails on the ground.

Classic Dinosaur Poses

More modern thinking suggests the tails were for balance and mobility and modern poses are much more dynamic.

The museum has a wall that identifies the sediment layers and fossils found. The rocks fractured when the continental drift causes the rocky mountains to uplift. The fossils leave a record of what the environment was like during the deposition phases. The various layers can be identified by color and content.

Rocks

It is amazing how much they can piece together about the past.

Dinosaurs

Fossils

Fossils

The next stop was Dinosaur National Monument. You park at the visitor center and get a shuttle ride to the quarry. We walked back down,

Visitor Center

Quarry Wall

Quite a few famous fossils came out of this quarry. It is pretty remarkable to see.

Quarry Maps

Quality Experience

 

 

ROAD TRIP

1. Road Trip 1 – The Begining
2. Road Trip 2 – Seqoia NP, Death Valley and Hoover Dam
3. Road Trip 3 – Phoenix
4. Road Trip 4 – Meteor Crater and Petrified Forest National Park
5. Road Trip 5 –  Grand Canyon
6. Road Trip 6 – Canyon de Chelly
7. Road Trip 7 – Great Salt Lake – Antelope Island
8. Road Trip 8 – Dinosaur National Monument
9. Road Trip 9 – Rocky Mountain National Park
10. Road Trip 10 – Wilson’s Creek Battlefield