This little park doesn't have much in the way of amenities, being mostly gravel, but it has a huge grass lawn near the entrance that Sasha loves. It's supposed to be used by tent camping people, but she has other uses for the grass.
There is much to do in eastern Utah, but our primary reason for stopping here is Dinosaur National Monument. At the eastern edge of a (surprisingly) oil rich Ashley Valley, the Split Mountain range has been uplifted over millions of years and wind and rain have worn the edges off of the canyons, exposing untold numbers of dinosaur bones and skeletons. Today we explored the western edge of the park, starting at the Quarry Visitor Center. The road into the Visitors Center is directly across Highway 40 from Outlaw Trail. Handy!
Jensen is just a few miles south of Vernal, Utah, along the Green River, which is just a gentle, meandering, shallow river at this point, just a shadow of it's former wild self further north.
Unlike other towns in Utah, Vernal was not settled by Mormons. It is said the Brigham Young sent a scouting party to this area, the Uintah Basin, in 1861 and the report was that the area was good for nothing except to "hold the world together." However, settlers began to filter in and built cabins along Ashley Creek. I don't know if this was one of the original buildings, but it sure is old! Check out the sod roof and the log walls.
This area has become a mecca for petroleum, natural gas, phosphate, and Gilsonite extraction. Halliburton and Schlumberger have branch offices here. Vernal has taken advantage of its location adjacent to Dinosaur National Monument in a number of different ways.
Even the town of Naples, just about 2 miles south, gets into the act.
The road into Dinosaur National Monument is only seven miles from US Highway 40, so off we went.
As we waited for the tram to take us up to the "Bone Wall", we checked out some displays in the Visitors Center. One such display graphically illustrated the many layers of rock in this area. The scale, in years, of these eras is staggering!
We boarded a thoroughly disinfected and cleaned tram, staying at least 6 feet apart, for the short trip to the Quarry. Parking is available at the Quarry exhibit hall, but is limited to those with handicap issues.
In a large air conditioned building enclosing a large area of sandstone, we got our first look at some "real" dinosaur remains. Earl Douglass discovered dinosaur bones here on August 17, 1909. Five days later his journal records the first known visitors to the quarry. "For a time the rocks that never had the impress of a woman's foot, and seldom that of a man's, swarmed with people of all ages." Excavation continued for years, with several complete skeletons being removed from this narrow layer.
This area was at one time the edge of a vast inland sea. Rivers washed the remains of dinosaurs into the lake where they were covered in sand and silt. As more and more silt was washed into the sea, the weight of the material compressed into sandstone and fragmented the skeletons. Eventual uplift brought this layer of remains into an upright position and wind, rain, and earthquakes slowly brought the dinosaurs back to the surface. Careful presentation allows us to view this remarkable find.
These bones are 149 million years old! This almost complete Allosaurus skull is a rare find since the weight of sand and silt crushed so many of the more fragile bones.
Rather than take the easy tram ride back to the car, we elected to take the 3/4 mile hiking trail back. There were some sketchy parts, but for the most part it was a nice walk on an overcast, warm day.
The trail provided some spectacular views.
And a variety of strange rock formations. This material, although it has the appearance of mud, is as hard as....well....rock.
Fantastical rock formations abounded on the trail.
We even came across some petroglyphs.
And, at an obscure corner of the parking lot, a lonely flower blooms. Proving that even under the harshest conditions, a pretty flower can brighten our day.
