A Day With the Dinosaurs

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The drive from Cedar City was hot and long. We’d forgotten how long of a steep grade we had to drive over. If you are planning a trip over Hwy 191 into Vernal, then just beware and be prepared.

We arrived in Dinosaur about 6pm, found our campsite and unpacked. We had thought that it would be nice and cool but alas, it was very warm. Fortunately, the evenings cool off nicely. After dinner and a campfire, we turned in for a much-needed sleep.

Monday morning, we got an early start. We wanted to go on the ranger-led hike at 10am and then visit the Quarry site. There are other sites I’d like to visit and photograph, but it will need to be another trip.

We got to the Visitor’s center in time to buy forgotten hats before catching the tram to the top of the hill. The quarry, where Dino’s were discovered, is at the top of the hill and the hike is out of the quarry area.

http://www.nps.gov/dino/index.htm

The Quarry is the hill where Dinosaur bones were discovered and taken from and then others exposed. A building was built along the hill protecting the exposed bones and allowing for inspection by the public.

The ranger-led hike goes down into the canyon from the quarry. One goes forward in time, from when an ocean was covering the area. Wave prints are visible in the rocks as well as exposed dinosaur bones from 150 million years ago. It was great for the kids to get a visual experience on reading time in the rocks and seeing a real deposit of dinosaur bones.

On our hike, was the man and his son who were camped across the road from us. At the campground, we’d said hi and kids had played some together. On the hike, we got to be better acquainted.

We finished up our hike, and the plan was to find a picnic table, finish up the Jr. Ranger books, eat lunch stored in our electric ice chest in the truck, get Jr Ranger badges and a couple of souvenirs, then go back to the campground.

Great plans foiled again! We found that our built-in inverter had stopped working so the food in the ice chest was getting warm. Then we realized that the sandwich bread had been left back at the RV. So much for sandwiches!

We ate some pieces of turkey and cartons of yogurts then went into the visitor’s center for the Jr. Ranger badges and a little souvenir. Kids chose small magnifying glasses and Emilio, dino toys.

Starving, we piled into the truck only to discover why our inverter quit. The battery was completely dead. Dale tried to find someone to give us a jump while I went into the Visitors Center to see if I could get us help in there. Alas, I was told to call Emergency Roadside which was all well and good except that my phone was at 1% and our AAA card was back in the RV. Fortunately, another GM truck owner came to our rescue, gave us a jump and we were on our way.

Arriving back at our campsite, our new friends, Zac (the dad) and Benjamin (the son) came over. Benjamin came to play with the kids and then dad (encouraged by us) brought his camp chair and chatted.

Benjamin ate some additional dinner with us and Zac brought over their smores makings. Around our campfire adults drank wine while kids gorged on smores.

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