Dinosaur National Monument is filled with quiet beauty.
Located on the border between Colorado and Utah, Dinosaur National Monument is known for it’s large deposit of Dinosaur Bones. The Park also features a quiet beauty and an interesting collection of Native American petroglyphs. The Yampa and Green Rivers snake their way through the canyons of the park and attract white-water rafting enthusiasts– including several of my friends.
So there is a little bit of something for everyone in this little known National Monument. Hopefully, this blog will encourage some of my readers to visit. You won’t regret the decision.
Bright asters decorated the roadside on our way into camp.
This person with his/her large hands and dogs is one of my favorite petroglyphs.
Shadows stretch across the Green River while the evening sun gently bathes the cliffs above in light. Not a bad view from our camp!
This large dinosaur bone was sticking out the edge of a cliff.
I thought this Native American petroglyph was particularly appropriate for the park.
Rock monuments are given names in Dinosaur National Monument, as they are throughout the West. What would you name this? The local answer is below.
Peggy sits beside a series of petroglyphs we found high above the road.
An alien petroglyph?
A final scene from our campsite.
The monument was named Elephant Toes. NEXT BLOG: The incredible rocks of Bryce Canyon National Park.
Wandering through Time and Place 
So cool that you included some petroglyphs. One in New Mexico inspired part of the story I worked on for this year’s National Novel Writing Month. Fascinating things.
Happy December.
I love petroglyphs. They often make it into my blogs. 🙂 Peggy and I have wandered the West in search of sites. –Curt
beautiful! i want to go!
🙂
This is one I really didn’t know anything about. Is that dinosaur bone as big as it looks? Oh, my! And the petroglyphs are wonderful – as are the asters, which I did recognize.
But I confess – I’m really eager for Bryce Canyon. That’s one of my favorite places in the world.
Yes, the dinosaur bone is as big as it looks! I should have used my size 14 shoe as a comparison.
As for the petroglyphs, they are always fascinating. Peggy and I have a few thousand photographs we have taken from numerous sites. We can only wonder what creates such visions. One can imagine shaman operating under the influence of various psychotropic drugs. Yesterday, I was talking with a member of the Huichol tribe of the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico. Much of their incredible art is based upon the use of peyote. I will do a blog in a couple of weeks. –Curt
Very, very cool.
Thanks.
I was so tired when I wrote. I meant to add that I appreciate the history you share with us.
Hey, I’ll take “very, very cool” any day. 🙂 –Curt
LOL. I wanted so say more, but brain fatigue shut me down and I went with how I felt!
Still one of the most intriguing places, and most dramatic, to me…. You guys are my bucket list, hee! 🙂
🙂
Such superb, tactile photos. Years ago a local museum lent me a (much smaller) dinosaur bone to take up to the local school where the kids and I constructed our own version of a dinosaur (the museum then took the result and put it temporarily on show). I still remember the wonder of the weight of that bone.
Neat idea Hilary… with the kids and the bone. It would have been fun to see the student’s project. And to think as you hold the bone… here is something that was roaming the earth millions of years ago. –Curt
Curt, I’ve been in this area many times and for some reason (or combination of reasons), I still haven’t made it to Dinosaur. Your post makes me want to go even more, and on my next pass through, by god, I’m goin’! For geologists, this place is like Mecca. I took paleontology in college, but most of the fossils we studied were considerably more boring and a long way down the food chain from dinos. In addition to the dinos, it looks like great country as well. The landscape shots are particularly nice. Nice post. ~James
Thanks James… and I was just like you. I wandered through Utah and Colorado several times and always missed Dinosaur. Finally, I got there. It’s worth the trip! –Curt
That dino bone sticking out… just amazing, isn’t it? And by the way – I do believe in aliens and flying saucers. 🙂
Big, big, bone… and I am with you on the flying Saucers Koji. BTW… our book club is reading Kiyo’s Story this month. –Curt