Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado

Mesa views and dinosaur bones. What else do you need?

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The next morning, we did our typical van morning routine: wake up early, drive to a parking lot, get ready for an activity, then get going. As I’m crawling out of bed, I hear a, “Babe, you should come look at the light.” This was quickly followed by a grab my camera scramble since, you know, he wasn’t wrong!

Zoom in on those mesas in the distance.

The light was actually pretty spectacular that morning. I realized that I had to tell Adam to pull over at every overlook, even though that meant we would be starting our hike a little later. I couldn’t pass up the stops. It was one of those moments where you know that you’ll get some beauts in the group.

See the car to the lower left? This road leads down to Echo Park area. There are two great hikes down there, but the park recommends a high clearance and four-wheel drive vehicle. We didn’t want to chance it in the van, but a local from Dinosaur, CO, looked at our van and said that if it hadn’t rained recently, we’d be fine. We’ll get down there someday, even if it is in a different camper van.

The light streams were really beautiful.

The view from SE Island Park Overlook looking west. The Uintah Mountains are in the distance. The high plateau is Diamond Mountain, and just below the rim is the Green River. You’ll also notice the large number of trees. Apparently 60% of Dinosaur National Monument is blanketed in Utah juniper and pinyon pines

The view from Iron Springs Bench Overlook with a tree silhouette.

The top of Yampa Fault. The speed limit on Harpers Corner Road is 45 mph, but sometimes in the van (a high profile vehicle), we drive a little slower. That helped me take some pictures out the passenger window, like this one.

The view from Echo Park Overlook. Yampa Bench Road cuts through the middle. You can also see the drop off to Sand Canyon and the Yampa River on the left. Well before the age of dinosaurs, this area was a desert with windblown dunes. The uplift of the Rocky and Uintah Mountains, 40-70 million years ago, caused the rock layers to rise, compress, bend, and break. Then the wind and water eroded the rock, leaving this view behind.

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After changing and grabbing a quick bite, we started our hike on Harpers Corner Trail to the northern edge of the mesa. Adam took a trail guide and narrated our hike, pointing out the fourteen points of interest along the way.

You hike through the juniper and pinyon pine. It was actually quite nice to get some shade along the trail.

Apparently porcupines live in the area and gnaw on the trees. If it chews all the way around the trunk, the tree will die.

Looking to the east, the Green River. The confluence of the Yampa and Green Rivers is located behind this first canyon, where Echo Park is situated. Again, we’ll hike down there someday…

Looking to the west, the Green River.

A better shot of the Green River to the east.

Twisted juniper. The soil on this slope slips downward. However, if the sliding is slow enough, the trees will try to straighten up as they grow, resulting in their curved trunks.

As you hike further north, you get clearer views to the east and west. This is the Green River looking west to Utah.

And this is looking at the Green River to the east. The sloped formation is called Morgan Formation, and the whiter stone is Weber Sandstone.

This view was so cool. The upturned layers that you see are called the Mitten Park Fault, and they demonstrate the changes in Earth’s geology, starting 50 million years ago. There are 3,000 feet between the two sides of the fault. I said to Adam while hiking, “Should I have been a geologist?” LOL.

A Common Sagebrush Lizard. We saw these lil guys all over the park, and this one kindly posed for me for a few different angles. There are six species of lizards in the monument, so it should be no surprise that there are also petroglyphs of lizards in the park.

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The original plan was to hike Harpers Corner Trail and move on. But as we read more about Dinosaur National Monument, we realized that most of the dinosaur bones were on the Utah side of the park. We didn’t really have anything planned after the monument, so we figured, “Why not spend a whole day in the park?”

From the passenger window. There was construction along this curve (I may have edited out the traffic waiting on the other side), so the speed limit was only 25 mph here.

We saw that there were two short “hikes” into Hog Canyon and Box Canyon, and I love a good canyon, so we drove to the trailhead.

I didn’t have anything for scale, but this tree was huge.

The end of Hog Canyon. We decided to do the 1.5 mile hike first.

The light was incredible, and the walls were so high.

I told Adam that a wide-angle lens would really capture this shot better because you can see the top of both canyon walls, with this tree in the center, and with gorgeous light behind the leaves. He snickered at me, but when I turned around, he was taking a wide-angle Pixel phone shot. *cue rolling eyes*

I told Adam that he was my context (after he turned around to see why I stopped) - this was the only good way to show how large these canyon walls actually were.

The view from inside Josie’s cabin. We stopped for ice cream in Dinosaur after our park visit, and the owner told us about Josie’s wild history that the NPS deemed “not kid-friendly.” Apparently she was quite the outlaw!

I’ve never seen wild mushrooms on a tree before (in person). I didn’t grow up in an outdoorsy family, so hiking around Iowa wasn’t a thing for me as a kid…

The end of Hog Canyon. We didn’t hike all of this .25 mile trail because it was SO hot, less pretty, and we heard a weird noise that made both of us stop and say, “Let’s turn around.” We didn’t feel like running into a large wild animal at that moment.

Because it was so hot, we skipped the short petroglyph walks. Instead, we chose the air-conditioned Historic Carnegie Quarry, featuring its famous Wall of Bones, 1,500 dinosaur bones from the Late Jurassic period. The exhibit hall spans two floors, allowing you to view the quarry wall from two different levels.

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At one point, I was looking up at the wall (you can even TOUCH a dinosaur bone) and said, “Holy shit, Adam. That’s a dinosaur spine.” Remember guys… I used to be a history teacher! I love this stuff.

Dinosaur National Monument is a gem of the National Park Service. If you are ever in this area, it is well worth your time. The history of this area is incredible, and it’s difficult to put into words. You need to experience it. You just need to visit.

I’m sad to say, however, that we didn’t spend much time in the town of Dinosaur because it is quite the kitschy, eclectic little town. I’d love to go back sometime to photograph the town. Every street is named for a different dinosaur, and there’s fun dinosaur stuff all over town. Next time.

There will be a next time because we’ve already talked about revisiting this park. We both thought that this would be a nice park to visit in October or November, when it’s less hot, and when our van trips slow down. It is over six hours away, but it’d be good for a four-day weekend. I also mentioned to Adam (during this day) that you can do a 3-4 day rafting trip down the river. I didn’t think he would have been interested, but I now get the feeling that we might take a rafting trip through the monument in the future.

Cheers.