Dinosaur National Monument: Peter’s Version

Hi, this is Peter, Katie’s other half. If you read her last post, then you know that the two of us went to Dinosaur National Monument about two weeks ago. We were both armed with cameras (Katie bought me one a few months ago), so she had the idea that we could both post an entry from our different perspectives. So here is Dinosaur National Monument looking through my eyes.

I grew up going to National Parks every summer and some of my best childhood memories are from our family trips. One park that stood out to me then, but we never got to visit was Dinosaur National Monument. Standing alone in the Colorado and Utah desert, it is far from everything. Still, dinosaurs have fascinated me from a young age and place which abounded in fossils seemed too good to be true. When I moved to the state four years ago, I knew I needed to eventually get there. Four years later, I finally got the chance when I was planning a summer of adventure for Katie and I.

As we headed over the Rockies, the first thing that stood out to us was the changing landscape. Craggy mountains gave way to red dusty stone to flat desert dotted with mesas as bristlecone and aspen became juniper shrubs and sagebrush.

When we arrived at the park, we headed to the famous quarry where the unearthing of dinosaur fossils was stopped partway ninety years go to show the fossils as they were found in the earth. Most of the small dinosaur bones had been removed to show the fossils of the sauropods, giant long-necked herbivores like the diplodocus, camarasaurus and apatosaurus (aka brontosaurus). Nearly intact skeletons of stegosauruses and allosaurus (like smaller T Rexes) were also found there. Seeing the remnants of these beautiful beasts protected throughout hundreds of thousands millennia, forced up through the uplift of the tectonic plates and now revealed to be seen and touched millions of years later, I cannot help but marvel at the God who made such a creative and awe-inspiring world and allows us to see some fraction of his work.

After we left the quarry, we drove through the Utah side of the park, walking along the beautiful Green River and seeing cave drawings that were carved a thousand years ago (in perhaps one of the only places were that is considered “recent”).

The next morning we explored the other side of the park, which displays its history not through preserved ancient creatures or artwork, but through beautiful gorges that slice though layer after layer of rock clearly revealing millions of years of the geologic record. We slowly wound our way up the Colorado side of the park, stopping frequently to marvel at the beauty around us. At Harper’s Corner, the road ended and we got out to hike. Rocking the hiking backpacks we received for our wedding we climbed out on a fin of rock between the curves of the Green River. From our perspective, we could see Steamboat Rock, where the mighty brown Yampa River descends from the Rockies to converge with the aptly named Green River flowing out of the Wind River Mountains near Jackson Hole to form the major tributary of the Colorado. Where they meet, you can see the brown and green waters flowing side-by-side in the river, very slowly mixing together.

I chose the pictures below to complement those Katie took. I also included several of Katie taking pictures, not only to give a sense of perspective and scale, but also to show the master at work in her craft.

Here is the changing landscape:

When we first arrived at the Monument:

This stegosaurus greeted us to the quarry in Utah.

The wall inside just a part of this rock face.

We are proud National Park Pass owners!

The beautiful views

Back in Colorado the next day

Then we hit the trail.

At the top:

The confluence

A final water break before heading home