Day 30: Saturday 24-Jul-1999

Base Camp: Arch View, Moab, Utah

Excursion: Dinosaur National Monument (Utah/Colorado)

Distance: 350mi (560km)

As with yesterday, we got up early today and ate breakfast in the truck as we were driving. Today we were planning to visit the Dinosaur National Monument, which is a tad south of Wyoming by the Utah and Colorado borders. The drive up was nice. As we got off I70 in Loma, CO, we saw lush valley vegetation with cattle, horses and ranches. We headed north from there and had to cross a high pass which typically is closed in the winter. The roads were windy and steep. We stopped in the town of Dinosaur, CO, to collect information at their visitor's center. With a town name like that, you end up with interesting names on local places, such as Dinosaur Cemetery, which does not have any Dinosaurs. There we learned that the place in the National Park, if you have kids, is the so called Quarry which is north of the town of Jensen, UT.

	We did not see Fred Flintstone

The road to Jensen goes through several oil fields (surprise). Once you get into the National Park, you have to take a small bus provided by the park up to the actual Quarry. It looked like it may have been open for regular cars in the past. The so called Quarry is actually a two story building covering some rock where they have made some serious excavations. What has brought these finds to the near surface is the pressure from below having lifted rocks to a 45 degree angle. That is, things used to be flat, once upon a time, but the geological movements have caused parts of the rock to break up and tilt sideways. The tilting rocks are not small. You can easily call them small mountains. And the Quarry was probably the bottom of a lake or river at some point.

	At the bottom floor of the Quarry building, you can see dinosaur bones that have been excavated from the rock over which the Quarry building is built.

	The picnic (and a campground) is by the river at the end of the self guided trail.

	Erik and Izzy posing by the tilted cliffs. Down below you can see the campground and parking for those who've launched rafts into the river.

The kids found the Quarry modestly interesting. As an adult you have a little bit more appreciation for all the work that has gone into this. It was also fairly hot in the Quarry building, which did not appear to have (completely functional) air conditioning. After the visit in the Quarry we took the little bus down to the parking lot and drove off to a self guided tour in the park. At the entry of the guided tour is a little box where you, for 50c, can pick up a nice description of what you can expect and where things are located. We followed the map and ended up at the picnic area which is by the river. We ate lunch there.

The kids played around for a while. Izzy chased lizards. We had planned to take a smaller hike here, but the kids did not want to do that at all. It was quite warm outside. We could see the typical afternoon clouds build up over the skies. We walked down to the river and could see rafts operated by the Park Rangers. The waters were quite calm at this spot, when we visited it. Some day, when we return to this area, and the kids are a bit older, we should go out and do some easier river rafting. We have seen people in rafts at different places during this vacation and it looks really fun. We wrapped up our things and got back into the truck as it started to rain a little bit. We ate dinner at the trailer.

	The kids posing on a live dinosaur at a gift shop just outside the National Park.

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