09-20-21 Monday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 20 Buck 'N' Bull RV Park Rangely, CO

- September 20, 2021

09-20-21 Monday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 20

Dinosaur National Monument

Colorado and Utah

Dinosaur Day!!!! Dinosaur National Monument has 2 visitor centers; one in Colorado and one in Utah We headed to the first visiter center on the Colorado side since we are camping in Colorado, Canyon Visitor Center. We headed out about 10:00AM. It was only about a 30 - 40 minute drive to the Canyon Visiter Center in the town of Dinosaur. Yes it's called Dinosaur. The Colorado side does not have any dinosaur fossils, only the Utah side. I got my NP Passport book stamped and bought the sticker for it. We perused through the center looking at all the displays and reading boards. Nice little museum.

From here we headed to the Quarry Visitor Center, north of Jensen. We watched the movie about the monument and again walked through the small displays about the area. We were happy to find out yesterday was the last day the NP used busses to take you to the Quarry Exhibit Hall. We were able to drive up to the hall. We had the option to walk but it was a bit of a hill and the Quarry Exhibit Hall sat on top.

What an impressive building and the views from the hilltop are fantastic. We took a few photos of the building and the massive view you have, unbelievable. Once inside our jaws dropped. There is a wall with approximately 1500 dinosaur fossils. It looks to be about 100' long and 2 stories high. The National Park Service built the building around the wall and left all the dinosaur fossils intact so the public can see what the bones look like embedded in the wall. It's very impressive. Plus they have little story boards and electronic screens to help you identify some of the bones. Downstairs you can view the bottom of the wall and even touch some of the fossils. There are life size skeletons of what a few of the dinosaurs looked like. We ended up talking to one of the rangers and she was very knowledgable of the Quarry and the surrounding areas. I think we talked to her for about 1/2 hour. I asked about how the paleontologists come up with what a dinosaur looks like on the outside, colors, striping, etc. She said it was a best guess using todays animals and mammals and how they are colored. It was really fascinating to see this exhibit.

From here we took a hike that runs through the canyon below the visitor center. You can hike to a spot and see a dinosaur vertebrae still embedded in a wall and small sea animals like clams. A great little hike. The hike back up the hills wasn't has bad as I thought it was going to be. When we returned to the jeep we had our lunch and headed back down the hill to find petroglyphs and pictographs. I had a map to show us the sites close by.

The first one was less than 5 minutes up the road. It was about 75' off the road. So amazing to be standing there looking at a drawing that was chipped into the wall 1,000's of years ago AND you can still see it. The second stop was about 20 minutes away. This one was a combo of both types, petroglyphs and pictographs which is unusual. The 3rd was only about 5 minutes away. This one had larger images carved into the stone. So cool. Barry hiked up the steep hill a little further and took pictures of other petroglyphs. Too steep for me. By this time it was 5:00PM and we were starving. It was about a 40 minute drive back to Rangely. We decided to try the Mexican food restaurant in town and it was delicious.

Back to the RV, check in with Ken and Jan, dishes, clean up and plan tomorrow. It was a fun day and we learned so much! Enjoy the photos and good night.