Dinosaurland

We left the AIM Rally and headed north and west until we stopped in Vernal (pronounced Vern-al), Utah and parked at the Vernal/Dinosaurland KOA. The drive through the Rockies was beautiful spending most of the trip in the Yampa Valley. We pulled into the campground (a KOA Holiday, which is their middle tier) and got set up.

The next morning we headed over to the Dinosaur National Monument

without really having studied (kinda like high school) the area. We drove to the Quarry Exhibit Hall, nicknamed the Wall of Bones. What a very pleasant surprise!

The area was discovered by Earl Douglass, a paleontologist from the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh in 1909 and over 20 full dinosaur skeletons have been extracted and sent to various museums throughout the world. Douglass wanted a structure built over the site that would allow visitors to see the bones as they found them. There are over 1500 bones visible! Wonderful and educational stop. We hiked the Fossil Discovery Trail back to our truck.

For lunch we stopped at Tu Impossible for mexican food.

New place that was much better than expected as there wasn’t much choice of restaurants in the town of Dinosaur, CO.

We then drove all the way up Harpers Corner to hike the trail that over looks the Green River down in the valley. Great hike and beautiful views:

Hiking in the high desert really drains you and you need to carry a lot of water!

We headed back to Vernal and took Bear for a car ride. We wanted to take these pictures of the area that included the beautiful flowers and dinosaurs:

Not really feeling like cooking dinner, we found a restaurant that had an outdoor patio so Bear could eat with us. The place was called Swain Brothers Steakhouse. Great food! We even ordered a plain burger for Bear.

While we were eating one of the servers suggested that we hike the Moonshine Arch, so the next morning we loaded up Bear and headed out to the arch. We were able to find the trailhead, but the trail eluded us until another couple came up and showed us the way. Shayna and Trent were on vacation from Denver and stopped in Vernal for the evening. The arch was impressive:

Here’s Trent and Shayna:

After saying goodbye to our new friends we continued north to see the Red Canyon which was created by the Green River. The Visitor’s Center building jutted out over the canyon and there was a walkway which were were able to capture these pictures:

What a gorgeous place!

We stopped for lunch at the Flaming Gorge Resort (the campground that we had reservations in the next night) and sat outside so Bear could join us. We had a wonderful meal and we got Bear another burger! We returned to the KOA and Katrina made a great shrimp dinner.

Up and out the next morning for a 36 mile drive winding up and over another pass to Flaming Gorge.