Monday was our third full day at the
Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. We planned to explore the nearby attractions outside the park, heading south to the city of Vernal, UT. Vernal is dinosaur country, with lots of fossils and dinosaur tracks around the area. It's also very close to the
Dinosaur National Monument in nearby Jensen. The plan was to mountain bike first at
Red Fleet State Park, then go explore Dinosaur.
We were up early so we could mountain bike before the heat of the day. A small little dome light that I didn't know about was left on in the truck all night, so our battery was dead. A man from North Dakota that was camped next to us came over to give us a boost. We were very grateful for the help. He didn't have to leave his breakfast to help us out, but he did. I also found that a chipmunk had eaten the bite valve on my Camelbak. No wonder Snoop hates chipmunks and squirrels. They are so annoying!
The drive over to Vernal took us through the
Ashley National Forest over a row of mountains with a crazy descent down Hwy. 191 into Vernal that had 10 switchbacks! It was another road that was instantly added to my ride list. We arrived to Red Fleet State Park under cloudy skies and much cooler temperatures than expected. The park has several mountain bike trails, along with a hiking trail to a dinosaur trackway. A trackway is a set of dinosaur tracks in sequence where a dinosaur once walked. There are several hundred tracks visible at a site along the Red Fleet Reservoir.
Looking down on Vernal from one of the overlooks on Hwy. 191
We decided to do the hike first in case it rained and we couldn't get on the trails. I wanted to see these tracks. I heard a lot about how awesome they were and I had to see them for myself. It was a 1.5-mile hike out to the site. Sure enough, there are tracks everywhere. They range from about three inches wide to 17 inches. It really is amazing. You can clearly make them out in the rock slabs.
Following the black dino tracks on the hiking trail
Red Fleet Reservoir
Three-toed track
Great signage to help you find the tracks
After hiking back, we unloaded the bikes and started searching for the mountain bike trails. We found the advanced trails quickly and they truly were advanced, so we searched on for the easier trail so Shannon would not be scared to death the whole ride. The landscape was red desert sand and clay with rocks everywhere. I could see how a trail could get gnarly in a hurry here. We cruised a ways down the road looking for the trail, but before we found it the rain came. And it was a cold rain. The temp dropped to about 45 degrees and the rain soaked us. We opted to head back for the truck. We had been descending on the road, so we had to do a long climb in the rain to get back to our starting point.
Shannon had all she wanted by the time we got to the truck, but I wanted to see at least some dirt today. From what I could tell by the terrain around us, it was mostly downhill back to the park entrance. So, I hopped on one of the advanced trails, Handsome Cabin Boy, and started "descending" toward the entrance. After about 20 minutes of climbing, the downhill finally came. It was pouring now and the clay was turning to butter. There were some tough sections with gnarly rock gardens, drops and exposure. At one point, the trail was riding a small ledge that hung off the hillside with a 100-foot drop off the right side. It was a little sketchy riding that in the wet, but I did it and couldn't wipe the smile off my face at the end. The rain stopped by the time I got to the end of the trail, but the trail was getting really muddy. Who would have though that the first rain we would experience on our trip would come in the desert?! The last section was the best and featured some fun jumps and berms.
Nice view from the Handsome Cabin Boy trail. This is one of the many Battleship rock formations in the park.
One of the exposed ledges on the trail
Nice view from the end of the trail
Muddy day in the desert
The rain had put a damper on our plans. Everything we wanted to do was outside. We went into town for lunch, hoping that the rain would clear and we could do some hiking at Dinosaur. As we rolled into Vernal, the clouds began to part and the sun came out. Within 20 minutes, the rain clouds were gone from sight and it was beautiful! We stopped by the Steinaker Reservoir, then drove over to Dinosaur to get the exploring started.
Steinaker Reservoir
Dinosaur National Monument is unreal! If you have always liked dinosaurs and have never seen a real fossil, like me before coming here, then you need to go to this park. It is the best park I have ever been too. And that says a lot because I thought
Arches National Park was beyond amazing. Like Arches, Dinosaur has many different landscapes and rock formations throughout the park. It is amazing that so many natural wonders can be contained in one area. There are colorful mountains, hills of sand, orange cliffs, deposits from ancient rivers and much, much more. It's literally something new around every corner.
The flat green fields of Vernal and Jensen give way to mountains of rock as you approach the park
When you arrive at the park, the first thing you come to is the Quarry Visitor Center. We started our tour there, checking out the exhibits about dinosaurs and watching a film about all the park has to offer. The park is large, but only a small portion of it is accessible without a high-clearance 4WD vehicle, a raft or hiking boots. We only had one day to explore so we saw mostly the mainstream parts of the park, but I would love to return to check out more of the backcountry.
The best section of the Quarry Visitor Center is the kids' area, where kids can draw pictures of dinosaurs and post them on the wall. Some of them are very funny.
My favorite
From the Visitor Center, you can take a shuttle up the next hill to the Quarry Exhibit Hall building, or hike there via the 1.2-mile Fossil Discovery Trail. We chose to hike. The trail was supposed to feature some fossils and petroglyphs. The Quarry Exhibit Hall was said to feature an old quarry with a lot of visible fossils. I was excited from seeing the tracks earlier in the day, but was still skeptical that we would see anything other than a tiny outline of a fish on a rock behind a wall of glass.
The hike started off great. We saw lots of wildlife, including rabbits, lizards and insects. It was now sunny and warm, making it that much more enjoyable. Then we saw a faint petroglyph. It was nothing amazing, but still very cool. The next area of interest along the trail was a deposit of fish scales. At first, we could not find them, but then the sun hit the rocks just right and we could see thousands of tiny scales glimmering in every rock we picked up. Then you come to a wall with fossils in it. I found a few small pieces, but could not located the femur and vertebrae that were supposed to be visible. That was disappointing, but still I was pumped with seeing all those fish scales.
Our first lizard sighting, a Side-Blotched Lizard I think
Rabbits were everywhere! No kidding, we saw at least 20 in the first half-mile of trail
Another lizard
Some type of beetle
Our first petroglyph sighting
Fish scale deposits on a rock
Interesting colors everywhere
Looking toward the Green River from the Fossil Discovery Trail
My first real-life dinosaur bone sighting!
Interesting rock formations that looked like stacks of bricks
We finished the hike up a steep hill to the Quarry Exhibit Hall and went inside. There's plenty of interesting displays behind glass like I expected, but also an entire wall of half-excavated bones. There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of fossils in this two-story wall. The Quarry Exhibit Hall is built into the hillside so you can look at the fossils no matter what the weather is outside. It is truly amazing at what you can see here. The reason for so many fossils in one place is that this site was once a sharp bend in an ancient river, likely a deeper section of the river. Dinosaurs that died upstream were washed into this bend and their bones were deposited in the mud. Others came there for water as the river dried up and eventually died there when the water was gone. Over time, plate tectonics changed the landscape forcing the dried sediment bed upwards to a tilt, hence the wall we see now. The Quarry was unbelievable. My mind was blown when I left there. It was definitely the highlight of the entire trip for me.
Skull on display in the Quarry Exhibit Hall
A replica of one of the full skeletons found inside the park. More full dinosaur skeletons have been found in this park than anywhere else in the world.
The famous running crocodile. Replicas of this guy are best-sellers in the gift shop.
The Quarry wall
Too many bones to count in this wall
That's a big femur
We left the Quarry Exhibit Hall and hiked back towards the truck. Storm clouds and lightning were in the distance and appeared to be headed our way yet again today. I stopped at the wall of fossils again to look for that dang femur. It was amazing what I saw in the wall this time. After spending an hour looking at fossils in the Quarry, I now knew what to look for and found three times as many bones in the wall, including the huge femur and vertebrae. Shannon was yelling for me to hurry with the storms approaching, but I couldn't leave just yet. I was finding too much cool stuff!
Rain in the distance
That vertebrae I had been hunting for!
Femur in a cliff wall along the Fossil Discovery Trail. Best hike I've ever taken!
The storm just missed the park and we were able to continue exploring, next taking the Tour of Tilted Rocks auto tour through the park. The Quarry was not the only section left tilted by some pretty massive geological events. There were sharp mountains along the Green River and huge tilted rocks everywhere. Near the end of the tour, there were many options for hiking to see petroglyphs. Again, my mind was blown by all the drawings we found on the rocks. Some of them were huge and drawn way up the side of the cliff.
The Swelter Shelter is home to many petroglyphs and is just a short hike off the main road
The famous flute player petroglyph. You have to walk up a steep, rocky trail to see this group of petroglyphs up close.
Lizards on the cliff wall
Following colorful cliffs on the hiking trail
Nice view from the hiking trail toward the east side of the park. You can see the last of the rain moving through in the distance.
Another great view of the varying landscapes and colors
We finished off the tour by visiting the Josie Morris Cabin. She was a pioneer woman that lived in the canyon for more than 50 years, first building there in 1913. Most of those 50 years she was alone. Josie was known as one of the most rugged women in history, living off the land, raising cattle in the canyons and even designing some of her own water draining and storage systems to combat odd water laws that were in place during that time. Apparently, if a person owned a section of the river, then they also owned all the water that fed that portion of the river. So, small feeder creeks and streams that crossed another person's property belonged to the river owner. One landowner used this law to keep Josie from watering her cattle with the stream that went through the canyon in an attempt to run her off her land. Josie responded by designing and implementing her own system that changed the water flow so that it was dammed up on her property and never reached the river. Smart woman. She is also known for hosting the outlaw Butch Cassidy at her home from time to time. She died on the farm at 90 years of age after breaking her hip while working in the cabin.
The Josie Morris Cabin
One of the water ponds Josie made for her cattle. It doesn't get much flow into it now and has become quite stagnant.
We never stopped for lunch with the sudden change in weather, so we were ravenous by the time darkness came and ended our day in the park. We drove to Vernal and picked up an awesome pizza from the gracious family that runs 4 Brothers Pizza before heading back to camp to eat and listen to some football. It was a super quiet night in the tent with the exception of the howling of coyotes. I couldn't sleep most of the night, so I just laid there and listened to the howls. They were very close to the campground for several hours. It was eerie, yet awesome at the same time. It was a great end to our last night in the Gorge. Now it was time to head for Salt Lake, where family awaited us.
