Today we are leaving Vernal and after visiting Dinosaur NM are planning to drive to Grand Junction Colorado where we will spend the night. After breakfast we leave for Dinosaur NM where our major goal is to see the dinosaur quarry. In this period we can visit it only with a tour starting at the visitor center so we reserve our places and wait for the tour. To our surprise the tour is by private car but following a ranger lead car that opens the door to the quarry. This is good as it means we can leave whenever we want without waiting for other people but first of course we want to see the quarry.
The building is impressive from the outside and after the ranger unlocks the door we are in. The walking path is split over two levels so you can see the fossils from multiple angles and also allows the visitors to spread out which is good.
The quarry has lots of interesting bones, it is surprising how many of them there are mixed together in the geological strata that is exposed in the museum.
There are lots of specific areas to focus on with explanations regarding what we are seeing and we enjoy exploring the levels and the various bones.
The most impressive ones have been taken to other museums but what remains is still quite special. We can distinguish spines and even the mostly complete skull of a dinosaur.
There are also reproductions of major finds including a full allosaur skeleton and a huge dinosaur skull, must have been quite an exciting time when they were excavated.
We are quite fascinated by the hall and walk round a few times to make sure we don’t miss anything before returning to the car to continue the visit of the park.
There are some nice views near the visitor center and we try to imagine where the dinosaurs skeletons hidden inside the ridge are before deciding to move on.
We continue down the road to a few more points of interest including the Swelter Shelter petroglyphs. It is just one panel but given that we are still in the area of petroglyphs with alien representations, there are some weird ones in this single panel.
There is also a small Indian ruin however one of the most beautiful areas in Dinosaur NP, in our opinion, comes next. It is created by the Green River flowing through the badlands and creating a green corridor through this arid area which is a welcome sight.
The road descends slowly towards the river and we stop a few times at viewpoints to enjoy the great views.
We reach the water and explore the green area for a while enjoying the interesting rock formations before moving on.
And where there is water there are animals, here deer specifically. They are not stressed at all by us which is good as we can take a few great photos.
We continue a bit farther, park the car and start hiking through the backcountry for a few hours and enjoy the great views and the solitude of this great area.
The trail is on a disused road and we enjoy the walk but soon it is getting dark so we start back towards our car as we have a long drive ahead of us.
Before exiting the national park we stop at one more petroglyph area on the way, the Cub Creek Petroglyphs. The petroglyphs here are also interesting, it seems that almost all petroglyph panels here have at least something weird.
Before leaving for Grand Junction we also take a few photos of the surreal sunset and then we are on our way. The road goes through the mountains but it is still open and we arrive at a reasonable hour and fall asleep really fast after our long day.
