Dinosaur National Monument Part 1 Oct 3

Dinosaur National Monument

We were all packed up and ready to go by 8:30 am. from Antelope Flats. The road out was definitely muddy from yesterday's rain. Look at our poor car! We'll have to take it back into Vernal for a car wash before we leave in a couple of days. :)

Once we got out of the Flaming Gorge and back onto Highway 191 South, we climbed and climbed and climbed to about 8400 feet of elevation. The fall colours of the Aspens were gorgeous.

Then we broke out to looking over a huge mine just north of Vernal. A town of approximately 10,000 people. They mine potassium here and mix it with water and pipe it all the way to Rock Springs Wyoming, just north of the Flaming Gorge for processing. This is for fertilizer.

We start down from the high plateau, signs telling us 8% grade and 10 switchbacks before you reach the bottom! The motorhome did just fine, from 8400 feet to 5300 feet.

A short stop in Vernal at the Walmart Superstore to pick up some DEF for the MH and some items I had forgotten. Back down the road and we arrived at the Monument by 11 am. Short drive today.

Dinosaur National Monument, Elevation 5000 feet, so a little warmer. here than at Antelope Canyon, so it was into shorts and tee's. We chose the Green River Campground as it's still open for $18 per night. The other campground, Split Mountain, is mainly a group campsite and each site is $40 per night, but you can accommodate up to 25 people in one site. That one is open year round and after Green River closes, the charge is $6 per night. Both campsites are dry camping with no services other than a bathroom, garbage and one water spigot you can't attach a hose to. 

After set up a quick lunch it was time to start exploring. We decided on checking out Split Mountain campsite and then to the Visitor's Centre and the Dinosaur Quarry Exhibit.

Split Mountain Campsite is right on the Green River and is the pull out spot for rafters. They start many miles away up the Green River at "The Gates of Lodore", where there is quite the canyon with tall sides. 42.6 miles of rafting before pulling out.

It's mythical-sounding name is no accident. As you float past the Gates of Lodore into the Canyon of Lodore, you feel as though you've entered another world. What was previously a flat Colorado desert landscape suddenly becomes 2000 foot canyon walls. Your next 4 or 5 days will be filled with gorgeous campsites, exciting whitewater, and a constantly changing landscape (you even enter a new state!). Permits must be obtained through a lottery every December and January .

The Gates of Lodore section starts out in the northwestern corner of Colorado and flows through Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. You'll experience everything from deep, high desert gorges, to the geological chaos of Echo Park and Whirlpool Canyon, to the flat desert plains of eastern Utah.

Trips start from the Lodore Ranger Station. There are two options for takeouts - Rainbow Park or Split Mountain Campground. Taking out at Split Mountain adds 8 miles of fun class III whitewater onto the end of your trip! Much of the whitewater on this section is class III. However, there are three class IV's: Disaster Falls (where the John Wesley Powell expedition lost their first boat), Triplet Falls, and Hell's Half Mile.

We saw some people emptying their rafts after their adventure.

This is where they probably started from The Gates of Lordore. (pictures from google)

You can hear the river echoing off the cliffs.

The Green River is not very green. :)

Looking down on the Split Mountain Campsite.

Next it was off to the Visitor's Centre and then the Dinosaur Quarry Exhibit.

Back in the car to drive up to the Quarry Exhibit Hall.

The Quarry Exhibit Hall allows visitors to view the wall of approximately 1,500 dinosaur bones in a refurbished, comfortable space. Here, you can gaze upon the remains of numerous different species of dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic period, including Allosaurus, Apatosaurus, Camarasaurus, Diplodocus, and Stegosaurus along with several others. There are even several places where you can touch real 150 million year old dinosaur fossils! 

It was a huge wall of rock with a landfill of bones, none of them all together. Here are some close up shots.

Bones they uncovered and lacquered so you can touch them.

This is what the hillside looked like before they excavated for the bones now protected inside a building. Apparently there are many more under the building and out the other side. There is also a 2 mile trail where you can see some bones sticking out of the mountain from the Quarry Exhibit.

These next pictures show the layers of the sedimentary rock. Such beautiful colours.

That was so interesting. We headed back to the campsite but stopping at the Swelter Shelter Petroglyphs.

The Fremont people lived in this area about 1,000 years ago and left evidence of their presence in the form of petroglyphs and pictographs. 

Archaeologists first studied and named the Fremont culture along the Fremont River in south-central Utah and have since traced it through much of the Green and Colorado River drainages. The lifestyle of the Fremont people varied considerably throughout that area, reflecting the diverse environments that they inhabited. In general, they lived in small bands or family groups, grew crops to supplement native foods, and did not build large permanent dwellings.

In the Dinosaur National Monument area, archaeological evidence of the Fremont dates from about 200 A.D. to about 1300 A.D. While few actual houses remain, known dwelling places ranged from natural shelters (such as rock overhangs or shallow caves) to small “villages” in open areas. Archeological evidence suggests many dwelling sites were occupied only seasonally, as the people moved into and out of an area according to the availability of water and food.

Interesting ... back to the alien theme again as seen in a lot of petroglyphs and pictographs we've seen all over the southwest.

Back to camp for a well deserved beverage.

It clouded up again by 4 pm but is still warm outside. Not as many bugs here as there were further north, but not as many cows either. :) We sat outside until 5:15 when I started dinner. After we ate, Ray headed out for some sunset shots, the clouds parted just in time. Absolutely stunning.

We headed to bed at 9 pm. Now that it gets dark earlier we seem to go to sleep earlier.