Varied Skies

Certain expectations come with embarking on a cross-country trip. Patriotic songs conditioned us to see spacious skies, amber waves of grain, purple mountains, fruited plains, shining seas, wilderness, and alabaster cities. We even expected to see and experience the unexpected. But we never anticipated what lies in the high plateau of northeastern Utah and northwestern Colorado. I’m talking about a rainless double rainbow.

Just kidding. What I am talking about is the exact opposite of a fleeting rainbow.

Dinosaurs roamed the Colorado Plateau millions of years ago feeding along an ancient river bed. As the dinosaurs perished, the river swept their remains downstream, covering them in sediment. Over time, the sediment turned to rock. Eventually, geological forces thrust the rock up, creating “tilted rock” and exposing the dinosaur bones. Discovered in 1909 by a paleontologist working for the Carnegie Museum, this area is now protected as part of Dinosaur National Monument.

Dinosaur National Monument contains over 800 paleontological sites. But common visitors can roam the grounds and discover fossils embedded in the rock, or even ancient petroglyphs.

Or you can go straight to the highlight of the park, Dinosaur Quarry, and see more dinosaur bones than you could imagine in one spot. Many of the dinosaur skeletons housed in museums throughout the U.S. came from this quarry. Fortunately, authorities saw fit to leave the lower part of the quarry intact. A two-story exhibit hall now encloses the lower wall of the quarry, which the ranger described as a “logjam” of bones.

In addition to dinosaur remains, the Monument offers spectacular canyon views. We drove to the Colorado side of the park and hiked out to the point at Harper’s Corner, overlooking the confluence of the Green and Yampa rivers.

Your are not likely to find Dinosaur National Monument a convenient stop on any trip, but its unique attractions warrant the effort needed to visit this wonder of nature.