On the Road Again!

Sunday, April 20. As usual on a travel day, we were up well before the alarm and got an early start on the road headed to Dinosaur National Monument. We took a northerly route to avoid the interstate. It's hard to travel very far in Colorado without great scenery and today was no different than others. It was beautiful on Big Thompson Road, Buckhorn Road, and eventually Hwy 14. On Buckhorn Road we came across two tom turkeys pursuing two hens, and then nearby one tom with ten hens. This was our best wild turkey sighting so far. 

The Poudre River along Hwy 14 had some incredible sights including a roadside waterfall.

Rapids and small waterfall on the Big Thompson River

The views are stunning in Big Thompson Canyon - this was our 3rd time through, and we still were amazed.

This waterfall was seen roadside as we traveled next to the Poudre River.

We also went over Cameron Pass at 10,000 ft. We were a little worried about whether it would be icy or not. We saw a few trailheads near here the top of the pass for cross country skiers. The snow was plenty deep in this area still.

We turned onto Hwy 40 and stopped in Steamboat Springs for a charge, lunch, and grocery stop. Hypnotic Chicken was tasty, and we were on our way. 

We made it to the Utah side of Dinosaur National Monument earlier than expected so we visited the Quarry Fossil building which has an incredible display of dinosaur fossils embedded in the original hill where they were discovered in the early 1900's. I expect this is the best intact dinosaur fossil display in the world. 

The Dinosaur National Monument staddles the Colorado and Utah border. The part we wanted to see on this trip was on the Utah side. First time in Utah for both of us!

The very large wall/hillside enclosed in the Quarry Fossil building was chock full of dinosaur bones still in their resting place. The display was 2 stories high and at least 120 feet long.

A paleontologist working for the Carnegie Museum made the initial discovery of this massive trove of fossils. He spent 13 years working on the find, removing the top parts of the hill that this was found. Those complete fossils are now on display all over the world.

Here you can see articulated vertebrae at the top of the frame, as well as scattered rib bones and leg bones.

That's a dinosaur's femur that Leon is standing next to - glad we didn't coexist with these massive creatures!

The dinosaurs discovered were from the late Jurassic Period - the most common kind found were allosaurus. This is a cast of a complete one that was found.

This one was a meat eater - notice the sharp teeth and the front claws that could rip other animals to shreds.

From there we did a fossil hike where we could see fossils partially exposed in the rock face. These were untouched and amazing to see. Finally on our way back to the car we came across five prairie dogs hanging out and chatting with each other.

From sub-freezing temps in the morning in CO, to hiking in short sleeves in the afternoon in Utah - the weather has been a wild ride!

That's a femur bone of some sort of dinosaur right in the middle of the picture.

Cool balanced rock we spied on the Fossil Discovery Trail.

Stegosaurus model in front of the Visitors' Center. These were also found here.

We headed to the camping area, picked out a private site, heated up leftover soup for dinner, and enjoyed the quiet near the Green River. It got chilly quickly, so we went to bed around dark at 9:00.

The view near our campsite, with the Green River in the foreground.