Dinosaurs Galore

September 22^nd,  Colorado to Utah

The day before had been approximately 8 hours of travel from the city of Denver to the remote areas of Jensen Utah.  I had chosen this area for our route to Park City so that we could check out Dinosaur National Monument.  (See our suggested link.) I knew Joyce especially was interested in the geology and paleontology in such magnitude as was at this site.  We had that morning to explore the area before making our way to Park City and our second airbnb accommodations.  There were three main reasons for our visit to this area....dinosaur fossils, pictographs and petroglyphs; and amazing geological formations and the record of time they represent. 

We broke camp in a small window between the rains but the wind made our process a little tricky.  I had been running on less sleep now for a couple days and I woke hungry, tired and a bit cranky.  We didn’t make coffee campside due to being in a rush so that didn’t help either but I could feel my patience running a little low.  Joyce put up with me though and we found a little café with great coffee, some sandwiches and soup.  It was practically instantaneous that my mood lifted and we drove back into the park to learn about the ‘mother lode’ of dinosaur artifacts they found here starting in 1909.  

With temps in the low 50’s and blustery rain at times, we rode a shuttle up to the Fossil Quarry above the visitor center.  To say this was the ‘mother lode’ of dinosaur bones is totally appropriate.  We came into a building where a giant expanse of rock at least a football field long and four stories high was literally imbedded with various dinosaur bones from the large dinosaurs of the Morrison Formation.  It was explained that this had been the area of an ancient river that drew some large species such as Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Camarasaurus and Diploducis to name a few.  There were about 1,500 fossils in the wall and they were not replicas either.  There were a few down on the lower level that we could even touch.  I asked why they could be so cavalier with such precious artifacts. The park ranger said that twice as many dinosaur fossils had already been taken out, along with many that were nearly complete skeletons.  It began back in 1909 when a paleontologist came upon a full vertebrae intact with the tops of it literally sticking out of the ground.  It really was incredible and I can only imagine the excitement and shock at those first paleontologists uncovered fossil after fossil in layer after layer they excavated.  There were two new species found there that were not even known about.  Joyce was ecstatic to say the least, questions abounded for the patient park ranger.  It was rather overwhelming to consider the time passage in stark evidence displayed there. 

The explanation for why so many fossils were found in one place and in such numbers was because this ancient river attracted many large species as well as smaller animals.  There were some episodes of extreme drought which brought the animals down into the basin for water and died there due to the lack of it.  Then, massive flash flooding came through and snarled together live animals that had survived as well as dead skeletons, burying them under sedimentary minerals of various types in a mud/sand-like mixture.  That’s the layperson’s description anyway.  I can only hope I did it justice.  I was so glad I had put this on the trip menu and even though it was not the most direct route to Park City it was so worth it.  

The thought I couldn’t help but ponder was how in the world can there

be so many people who believe our earth is only thousands of years old instead of the billions that we have factual evidence of?  It’s just mind-boggling to me and when I hear about some religious organization establishing a Creationist Museum that tries to prove an earth only 6000 years old and all sorts of nonsense with no evidence to back up one whit of it and massive evidence available to contradict that fairy tale, I cringe at the willful ignorance gone rampant in some cultures.  Climbing down off my soapbox, let me say that, seriously, if I ever am confronted by someone with such closed-minded notions I am going to dare them to come to Dinosaur National Monument and walk away with those same thoughts.  It is an amazing learning experience that can only elevate and enlighten one’s mind but at the same time helped me to see how insignificant we as a species are compared to the sentient beings of ages past.  Highly recommend this national treasure!