The trip from Vernal to the Dinosaur NP wasn’t long, 30 miles maybe, and it was only 9:30am when I got there. The parking lot held only one other vehicle. This is the kind of touristy stuff I like to do. Major attractions with no, or few tourists. That means I have to travel during undesirable times of the year, like early November, but it sure has worked out for me over the years. I’ve been lucky to have huge tourist attractions nearly to myself on many occasions. And the weather has cooperated over those years too. I do like a good storm though…but not to drive in.
A shot of the countryside. Most desert like.
I was wondering what this area looked like 65 million years ago. And I was hoping my camera would take a shot into the past and bring it back to me, no such luck. Damned time paradoxes!
The rusty rig.
The uplift behind the rig represents millions and millions of years of geologic changes. The strata has been broken thousands of times by quakes which also pushed it up to it’s current position.
The museum.
Some dinosaur bones.
A meat eating nasty.
Very large leg bone...brontosaur, maybe?
Time to take a hike around the site.
Local strata showing it's age.
Odd looking hill.
Hard to miss all the differing strata.
Another interesting hill.
The pipe in the above picture comes from the parking lot of the upper museum. It’s this glassed walled building that was built back in the 50’s to protect all the dinosaur bones that were sticking out of the hill side. They’ve been taking bones out and shipping them to museums since the early 30’s. Then a few years ago it started to sink and break up. So they’ve closed it until 2012. I’ll have to come back to see really big bones that were left in the hillside.
The bone gallery...closed to the public. Damn.
And here in the rock, a real dinosaur bone.
The white arrow is suppose to show you where it is. It’s a leg bone.
Balancing rock.
Petrographic carvings. Could be old, could be new, no one knows anymore.
And another.
Back on the road. I've gained some altitude so there is snow.
An hour later, heading into the hills. I was wondering if it would ever stop climbing. Very steep in places. Slowed to a crawl on occasion.
And a couple hours after that, back into the desert.
Later that afternoon I stopped at an Indian casino. They have a nice RV park there but no bar in the casino. Would have been much more fun if they did.