Vernal, Utah

  We went to Dinosaur National Monument in Vernal.  Their visitor center has a shuttle up to the Quarry House.  We took it up the hill and went inside to view the fossil wall.  It is amazing how many bones can be seen in it .  The wall seems about 20 or 30 feet high.

More bones

I'm not kidding, the wall is enormous.

This bone is almost as tall as your dad.  It is just one bone from a dinosaur's leg.

A complete Alosauris.  Of course I spelled it way wrong.

After we went through the quarry we took the mile walk back to the visitor's center.  This is what we walked through.

The trail head.  You can see the way we walked.  The only problem is it was very hot about 100.  Good thing we had plenty of water with us.

On one spur of the trail, we went up the side trail and saw rocks with tons of small sea shells in the rocks.  All those bumps on that slab is sea shells.

On another spur we climbed up the side of a hill and saw dinosaur bones on the cliffside.

Your dad went all the way up the "steps" to get a closer look.  I on the other hand decided that my legs were like rubber so I just took his picture. 

We could see the Green River from up there.

We also saw some Indian rock art from about a 1000 years ago.  Nobody knows what any of the pictographs mean.

An alien???

Or just some medicine men?

When we were finished with our hike we went on a auto tour to Josie's house.  She was a rancher up there. 

This is a campground  and marina along the Green River.

There is a working ranch along the river.  It's been there for 110 years right in the middle of the monument.

This part of the river was once a gold sluicing area.  It wasn't worth the time and the money so it was abandoned. 

The rocks up here have strange shapes.  This one is called Turtle Rock.  Ya think?

More rock art.

And more

Here's Josie's ranch.  She lived up here alone for 40 or 50 years.  She fell on the ice in 1964 and broke her hip. 

She had no phone to call for help.  Friends found her and she lived only about four months longer.  She was 84.

The next day we stayed in town and went to  The Field House of Natural History.  That dinosaur is a replica.

The museum has loads of plant fossils from the area.

The floor in the main lobby shows the 80 mile radius that the fossils can be found here in Utah and Colorado. 

Another leaf from about 65 million years ago.

These flower boxes are all over town.  It really is pretty.

Outside the museum is a dinosaur garden.  I took a picture of your dad by one of them to show you how big they are.

I'm back inside and under the big skeleton in the lobby.  It was a good day.

 

We are in Nevada tonight.  We'll be here  in Nevada for the next six nights.  Then back into California.  We'll be home in just two weeks from today.  See you all soon.   Love, Mom and Dad