A model of the Stegosaurus at the entrance of the Dinosaur National Monument’s visitor center. This was the second most common species dug up at the bone quarry. I believe it was carnivorous.

The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.

The hip bone is connected to the back bone.

The back bone is connected to the neck bone.

—The Skeleton Dance

Today did turn out to be the perfect day. We wanted to escape the heat and camping at 7200’ worked. It bottomed out at 30º this morning. We even had to turn on the furnace in the middle of the night. The high temperature for today reached 72º at the campground and only 85º at the Dinosaur National Monument. In a couple of days it will reach 103º at Dinosaur. Yep, this is the day to go bone hunting.

But first, we needed a quick walk along the Canyon Rim Trail that goes through our campground. The overlooks to the Flaming Gorge are spectacular. I can’t wait to check out the reservoir this weekend.

It is 1700’ from the canyon rim to the water down below.

Our tickets to view the “Wall of Bones” at Dinosaur Monument wasn’t until 1 pm, so we slowly worked our way down Highway 191, also known as the Flaming Gorge Scenic Byway. There was our good old friend again - the scenic byway. Along the way we saw several blue water reservoirs with access through state parks.

The road featured a good number of switchbacks as it left the alpine highlands and descended to the desert valley. We came upon one scenic overlook, as it was labeled, of the Vernal Mine. This is a open-air phosphorous dig. Although not exactly scenic, it was kind of interesting. Utah is home to a lot of mining. They have a huge coal mine, two humongous sand mines right at the doorstep at Salt Lake City, and it used be a leading uranium producer. Anyway, a plaque explained how they set aside the topsoil and an underlying shale layer to get at the phosphorous. Apparently, once the phosphorous plays out, it is all going to be put back together like new. There are piles and piles and piles of all sorts of different colored rocks and soil. I wonder how they will put all that back together.

The only town between Flaming Gorge and Dinosaur Monument is Vernal. We stopped for gas. It was a blast to see how the town is cashing in on the Dinosaur phenomenon. There is Grandpa’s Bone Burger joint; Dinosaur Brew Haus featuring bones, burgers, and beer; and plenty of fiberglass dinosaurs and dinosaur murals to go around.

Each major river in Utah is dammed up somewhere. Each of these reservoirs eventually release water into the Colorado River forming a controlled water system for the Southwest that is slowly running out of water.

A small sample of the dinosaur craze in the town of Vernal, Utah. Vernal is located just a few miles from Dinosaur National Monument.

Our camping buddies, Babs and Tom, had just been through Dinosaur National Monument about a week ago. They also have a newsletter about their travels called Road Tripping With Babs and Tom. Reading their account of Dinosaur Monument really wet our whistle.

The whole ticket thing was a bit misleading. It appears that you need a ticket to ride the shuttle to the Wall of Bones display. That isn’t accurate. You can just hop on the shuttle or walk the Fossils Trail up to the display. The tickets are really to access the display on top of the hill.

The highlight of Dinosaur Monument, as I keep alluding to, is the Wall of Bones. The first bones were discovered in 1909 on top of a ridge. The ridge was slowly peeled away to reveal thousands of dinosaur bones. Several complete skeletons were removed and given to museums across the US. That left a long wall of bones still sticking out. A protective housing was built around the wall keeping the amazing wall intact.

Over 500 different individual dinosaurs of ten different species have been dug up here, but the two most common were the razorback Stagorsaraus and the big Camerasaurus. The big leg bones and the intact vertebrae were my favorite bones still imbedded. What a find it must have been.

The building along the top ridge houses the Wall of Bones display.

Oodles of bones still in the cliff wall.

According to the info plaque, finding complete intact heads of dinosaurs is extremely rare. Four were found at the bone quarry.

We walked the 3/4 mile Fossils Trail back to the parking lot. There was one area where we could see petrified bones in a cliff wall. They were hard to see at first as they blend into the cliff, but once you saw one, then others kind of came into view.

The landscape along the trail was an odd combination of stark grey and beautiful shades of color.

Some of the petrified bones we found on our Fossils Trail hike.

It’s kind of hard to see, but there is a vertebrae in the rock.

We continued down the park’s western road. It continues through the park, following the Green River, for another 12 miles or so. The rock formations were amazing and unique, even for Utah. It was a conglomeration of all sorts of colors and textures haphazardly thrown together. Where did all that variety come from in such a concentrated area?

Back on our Easter egg hunt for petroglyphs, we found several more panels including some awesome lizards and a flute player. These required climbing but it was worth it. Thank goodness it was only 85º.

These petroglyphs seem different from the other ones we saw. These were probably made by the Fremont culture and are much older, about 1000 years old. There were no deer, no horses, etc. Like me, they seemed to like the little geckos.

The flute player. Sadly, some of it is worn away but it is still a cool drawing.

A very feint but interesting face.

Another odd face.

When we finally returned to V-Jer, we were greeted by a herd of longhorn sheep. Apparently, they mow the grass in the campground.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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