Back in the Red Rocks
We’ve been just so happy the last few days, back in the red rocks of Utah, this time at Dinosaur National Monument. Dinosaur offers an interesting array of geology from a number of different geologic time periods, especially our favorite, the Morrison formation. The red rocks captured our collective heart a year ago, and in part led us to this trip.
Last summer, we were fortunate enough to spend a month traveling through the southern part of Utah and parts of the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. Our trip then, in a converted minivan, not a Minnie Winnie, began in Zion National Park, where we were first captivated by the redness, the height and the vastness of the rocks. Zion was fascinating from a people point of view as well. It broke my heart to see so many people treat it as a drive-by, meaning they were hustling through the major points of attraction, selfie sticks at the ready, and then racing back to the shuttle. We’d like to go back to Zion in the off-season and spend more time exploring both the front and back country.
The quietness of Dinosaur is one of the reasons we are enjoying it so much. It’s Fourth of July weekend and the campground is just over half full. We were nervous about finding camping for this long, holiday weekend and had to laugh when we rolled in Thursday morning to so many vacant sites. The folks that are here seem intent on peace and quiet, good hikes and dinosaur bones!
Yesterday we took a long hike through the washes and slick rock in the shadow of Split Mountain. It was brutally hot, but it was stunning to walk through the different formations and the array of colors spanning millions of years. For the entire three hours, we never saw another person on the trail.
This afternoon, we visited the quarry, which is situated above the visitor’s center. I’ve never seen such a terrific display of partially excavated fossils anywhere. A structure was built (and rebuilt) around this mountainside in order to protect and preserve the fossils. It’s the brilliance of our National Park System: preserving, displaying and teaching about these fossils as well as preserving the rest of the acreage that makes up this monument. It’s not easy though, since beneath this beautiful, untouched land sits an abundance of natural gas and oil. If it wasn’t for the preservation of this land by the federal government, we’d be camped amongst oil derricks instead of cottonwoods. Food for thought.
In addition to the dinosaur fossils, we have seen petroglyphs and pictographs dating back a thousand years. To stand in the presence of such ancient objects is humbling. And, this morning, we visited the homestead of a woman who spent fifty years tending to her cows, chickens, and sheep, and her garden. She sought solitude and certainly could not have picked a better place for it. While hiking one of the box canyons near the homestead, we heard an odd huffing sound; not sure if it was a deer or a bear or a mountain lion bedded down in the tall brush under the trees, but we opted to make our way back out the way we came, all the while the peregrine falcons overhead screeching their familiar and very welcome call.
Finishing this up, it’s poring rain outside, drops the size of golf balls, much needed moisture in the desert. Thankfully, we are not in a tent, but safely inside our wonderful Minnie.
