Can I Say Dinosaur National Monument was DIN-O-MITE?

You bet your jur-ass-i-can! Comet-cal? Pterobyl? I din-o?

No bones about it...the whole family thought this place was rawr-some!

This area of Utah/Colorado is incredibly picturesque and full of natural wonders AND it is a dinosaur fossil hotbed.

The Utah side of the monument is known as “the dinosaur quarry” and has over 800 paleontologic sites where they have discovered some of the most complete dinosaur skeletons ever unearthed.

The monument’s main attraction is an enclosed fifty foot wall of partially excavated dinosaur bones.

In this dig site there are approximately 1,500 specimens with bones from many different species of dinosaur including an Allosaurus, Aptosaurus, Camarosaurus, Diplodocus and Stegosaurus.

The reason that these bones are so well preserved is that the dinosaurs died on a stream bed where they were buried in layers of mud and sediment.

Some of the bones were washed downstream where they created a jumbled dinosaur bone logjam.

We actually got to touch several of the bones which date back 149 million years ago!

And of course we completed the junior ranger program and earned our badges!!

We spent a couple of days exploring the extensive park land and the Green River.

There was a nice easy trail that took us down by the water where we could explore the river bank.

We followed the scenic drive in the park all the way up into Bureau of Land Management land and onto Blue Mountain.

There were not many signs and no place to turn around so we just kept going...up and up and up.

And ohh the wind - I wasn’t sure we weren’t going to get blown right off the Mountian top.

The spot where we got out had its own unique biome with wildflowers and dwarf ash trees. It was so beautiful.

We got quite the view!

And it turns out the road was a dead end- so back down we went!!!

One exciting development on this leg of the trip was that B2 got her hairs cut!!!

Let’s just say that this was not a mutual decision and it provided us with quite the preview of what our future teenage years might look like.

The good news is now she loves it and the better news is that she can now brush it all by herself!!!

In the end bribery was our only option and she kept us to our word! Bubble gum ice cream!!!

We visited the Vernal Dinosaur Museum and enjoyed seeing some of the bones that were excavated from the Dinosaur Monument as well as a fully functioning lab where they are still working on process fossils from the various dig sites.

They had an outside dinosaur garden with life size replicas of dinosaurs!

Lots of opportunities for photo opts!

About an hour from where we were staying there was a trout fish hatchery called Jones Hole National Fish Hatchery.

The hatchery is located adjacent to a creek that feeds the Colorado River over a fresh water spring. The spring produces 15,000 gallons of water per minute and maintains a temperature of 54 degrees year round making for ideal trout tearing conditions.

We hiked along the creek and the water was so clear we could see trout swimming in the water!

The drive in and the land around the hatchery was spectacular.

Inside the hatchery we were able to see where the fish eggs incubate. Over 2 million trout were grown here and distributed throughout Utah and Wyoming watersheds last year.

Since the hatchery does not keep broad stock eggs are received from other federal fish hatcheries around the country.

And then hatched and grown on site.

There are fifty outdoor channels were they are typically raising brown, brook and brown trout.

Fish that are ready to be stocked range in size from 3”-12” depending on what fish biologists from the state or tribal counsel decide will work best for the body of water the fish are being released into.

One of the rangers brought the kids out some cups of food so they could feed the trout!

All in all this was probably one of our favorite stops so far! We saw beautiful geology, went on some daring adventures and saw tons of Dino bones!

Well done Vernal, Utah!!! Next stop Grand Junction!!

Rocky snuggled in and channeling his inner Morticia♥️