The Real Jurassic Park: Hiking the Fossil Trail at Dinosaur National Monument

Fossil Wall

 

 

 

Date: July 22, 2020

Place: Dinosaur National Monument, Vernal, Utah

Coordinates (of the Quarry Visitor Center): 40.438539, -109.307211

Length: 1.2 miles 

Level: easy (one way downhill)

 

Looking back at my 2020 summer road trip with my chikas and their friends to Yellowstone I can say that despite the challenges of such an impromptu trip with four minors, it was also a time with a great sense of freedom to go wherever and see whatever I had my mind on. Our main destination for this trip were the Yellowstone and the Gand Teton national parks and we explored them for about six days. There was a lot more to explore in these immense parks, but it was challenging to have to move our camp every day, and basic facilities, including showers, were closed due to the pandemic. In short, after seeing the highlights that each park had to offer, we moved on. Having a few days still on our travel plan, we exited Yellowstone on the northeast. We passed through the recreational town of Thermopolis where we enjoyed some hot springs time, then continued south to Fort Washakie, where we visited one of the presumed grave sites of Sacagawea, the legendary Shoshone guide of Lewis and Clark. 

After Fort Washakie we continued south to Dinosaur National Monument, on the border of Utah and Colorado. 

I've added Dinosaur National Monument to our itinerary on a whim. It is a very isolated place and I had a feeling that this was my opportunity to see it, since we were sort of, 'in the area'. It was a long drive still to get there from Fort Washakie, through mostly wilderness area which was both beautiful and desolate. We arrived Dinosaur NM in the afternoon, in time to get some impression of the west side of the park, and to set up camp at the Split Mountain Campground, where we were assured to have two nights of stay. This was the only place on our trip where we didn't have to move our camp first thing in the morning, and it was a great relief.

 

Green River, near the Capmground

On the morning of July 22, 2020 we drove to the eastern entrance of the park where the fossils exhibit hall and the fossils trail were. Naturally, the first thing I notices after I parked the ca was a wildflower in bloom. 

When we came in the park on the day before we had only little time to enjoy the geological beauty of the place. Now I could take in the colorful landscape. 

About 150 million years ago this place was open space with a large river running through it. The river had a tight curve in the spot we were now at. Animals that died in the river were swept away by the current, but the river bend trapped the largest of them all - the biggest dinosaurs. Over a 150 dinosaur skeletons were dug up here, of 15 different species, some found only here, all of which of large dinosaur species.

At some point excavation was discontinued despite many more fossils still buried in the earth there. A rock wall with exposed remains was enclosed in a building and turned into the exhibit hall. We took the tram up the half a mile asphalt road up to the exhibit hole, and joined other visitors who stood there, gaping at the fossilized pile of huge bones. 

Dinosaur Fossils

In my childhood I used to be obsessed with dinosaurs. I learned their names, collected cards, and read books and articles about them. Then I lost interested in the bygone, turning my passion to the contemporary nature. Now, as I was looking at the massive wall of fossils, I felt my old fascination with these giant reptiles welling up inside me. The youth in my group were quite inspired as well, and not only by the fossils but also by the paleontological research and the reconstructed skeletons that were on display inside the hall. 

Fossils wall

We stayed inside the Exhibit Hall for a long while, but eventually it was time to go. We decided to take the long way down - not to ride the tram again, but to hike down the mile or so trail through the wadi. 

Fossils Trail

150 million years ago this area was lush and productive enough to support herds of giant dinosaurs. In modern time Dinosaur National Monument is an arid, a high desert. Trees were few and far between, and those we saw away from the river were pretty much all drought-tolerant junipers.

Rocky Mountain Juniper, Juniperus scopulorum

The trail downhill follows the path of a short desert wash that drains the same plateau where the main excavation site was. We were told to look out for fossils along the way down, and so we did.

Even without the presence of fossils, this trail was a lovely piece of geology. The naked slopes, typical of a desert area, were very colorful, showing layers of different types of rocks with mineral composition.

Keeping on the lookout for fossils we started seeing them in the rock face. Irregularities in the rock were not hard to find, but interpreting what we were seeing wasn't easy. The formation in the photo below is interesting, but I'm not sure it is a fossil.

Fossil?

We were going down a trail through time. The wash cut through the rock layers, eroding them top to bottom, sending bits of newer sediments tumbling down passing much older sediments  on their way to rest at the newest, aluvial soil at the valley below.  

It was at the layer below the top, a contorted gray type of rock, that we found what was clearly fossilized bone. There was no mistaking the structure of the thing. Here be dinosaur remains, resting until excavated, or eroded to fine bits. 

Exposed bone fossil 

I explored the fossils area a bit longer while the youth darted downhill. It wasn't a long way down but that short distance hike offered some very interesting sights. 

Trail

It even offered some wildflowers, blooming in the height of summer, in an arid and hot desert. The high desert of Utah does get monsoon rains, some of them even soak through, but most summer precipitation there becomes fast runoff that feeds int flash floods. 

Mallow

We've experienced some of these summer rains on our trip, but today the clouds were light and it looked like no more rain for the time being. 

Trail

At the bottom of the wash the rocks were different again, of older, more colorful nature. A sign post at the wash opening said that the little yellow circles we saw in the rocks were actually fossilized fish scales, originated in an even older time when the area used to be under water, the bottom of a warm, shallow sea. 

I didn't get good photos of those little yellow circles. I had much better success photographing large, red rock walls. 

The rock crevices here were older, with more soil accumulated in them to support rich plant life. Some of these plants were in bloom. 

Rock Goldenrod, Petradoria pumila, growing on Mowry Shale rock, with yellow fossil fish scales.

From the wash opening we still had about a third of a mile walk back to the visitor center where we parked. There was more to see along this short stretch of trail too.

There was this little cave below the slope. We looked inside it but there wasn't anything in there. Perhaps animals find shelter in it during night time, or when it storms.

The valley spread flat before us. The flat looks cab be deceiving - the plateau was cut deeply with small, narrow canyons, making it hard to traverse. The trail was along the bottom of the hills and avoided crossing the cracks in the earth. 

One other thing to see along this trail was a relic of a much more recent history than dinosaurs - it was an area of petroglyphs that were etched there by the native people of the area that predated the modern day Ute nation.

Petroglyph

Some of the petroglyph were of obscure nature, but others were much more straight-forward and easier to understand.

Petroglyph

The youth in my company were on the lead throughout the hike. At some point a couple of the came back to me calling with excitement that they found fire ants. I followed them to an active anthill. There were ants there, all right, and they were red. If they were in fact fire ants, I have no idea.

Ants

I found a few more wildflowers near the tail. This summer there was a hard drought in the entire of the southwest, but there was still some desert bloom to see.

Hoary Tansyaster, Dieteria canescens

A little lizard rested vertically on one of the colorful rocks near the end of the trail. I snapped a few shots before it took off and hid in a crevice.

Plateau Side-blotched Lizard

From ear the trailhead we could see a lot of green fields - watered by the Green River. The lawn surrounding the buildings near the trailhead was green as well, drought or no drought. All around it however, the soil was dry. We spotted a cottontail rabbit in the dry area, near the edge of the lawn, no doubt checking out the meal plan.

Cottontail Rabbit

We completed the hike and went to a picnic area to make lunch. There was probably time for another hike but the youth were already warn out from the long trip and showed some dissent between them. Instead of hiking we drove down to Steamboat Beach, near where the Yampa and the Green Rivers meet. Then I took them near Split Mountain to climb rocks and have fun before heading back to the campground to continue a relaxed afternoon on the shore of the Green River.

Split Mountain