On day six, I finally got to my true destination: Dinosaur National Monument. This place is somewhat like North Dakota, in that no one has ever been there, so I wasn’t sure it actually existed. Well, now I know…Dinosaur National Monument DOES exist, and it’s spectacular! I’m still not sure about North Dakota, though.
There are two main entrances to Dinosaur National Monument, each leading to its own area with its own attractions. On the Utah side of the state border is the Fossil Entrance, where you can go to see the dinosaur fossils that gave the monument its name, as well as some petroglyphs carved into the solid rocks by natives in the distant past. On the Colorado side of the border, you’ll find the Canyon Entrance, also known as the Scenic Entrance. This is the part of the park I chose to explore.
On the drive in, the first official overlook I encountered was the Sunrise Overlook, on the slopes of Buttplug Plug Hat Butte. Some photos from this first stop…
Just a little further up the road, I encountered the trail head for Bull Canyon Rim Trail. This is a shortish, out-and-back trail that, wouldn’t ya just know it, follows the rim of Bull Canyon. It provides some nice views of the rock formations of the canyons in this part of the monument, as well as sweeping views across the high desert plains. And trees…lots of cool gnarly trees…
Call me spoiled, call me jaded, but after seeing the landscapes above, I honestly wasn’t impressed. O sure, it’s scenic stuff, but I’ve seen better. I was, however, struck by the sheer silence of the place. There was no wind at all, and very few people in the monument. This is such a sparsely populated area, I couldn’t even hear any distant traffic noise. No train horns, nothing! Only a periodic, single syllable from a crow, hawk, or other bird. The intervening seconds between bird calls were profound silence. Normally when I find myself at a canyon like this, I’ll do some screaming, to try to get some serious echoes going. But this silence seemed almost sacred; I felt like it should remain undisturbed. So I moved on without raising my usual ruckus.
I returned to my rental car, and continued driving deeper into Dinosaur National Monument, still thinking this place was uninspiring except for the silence. But I was about to discover the real reason this part of the monument is called the Canyon Area. The Yampa and Green Rivers occupy a canyon landscape far more impressive than what I had already seen. Bull Canyon was but an appetizer preceding a sumptuous feast! Below is a sampling of the views I enjoyed from the next few overlooks…
Finally, I reached the end of the road, which is also the beginning of Harpers Corner Trail. This trail runs along the top of a very narrow ridge that protrudes into the Green River Canyon. Being atop such a narrow ridge, this trail is more than a little scary in places. But the views are worth it! Enjoy them NOW!
By the way, if I haven’t yet imparted a good understanding of how remote this area is, there’s this…
I drove through the town of Dinosaur, Colorado on the way back to the hotel in Rangely, Colorado. I find myself wishing that I had photographed the town of Dinosaur, but I didn’t, so lemme just tell ya ’bout it. This is a town of 320 people, just three miles from the Utah border. It has a visitor center, two gas stations, one liquor store, one restaurant (that closes at 8 PM), but THREE marijuana dispensaries. That many dispensaries would lead to a lot of people with the munchies after 8:00, so the shortage of restaurants strongly implies that the people frequenting the dispensaries are not consuming their products in the town of Dinosaur. Given the proximity to the Utah state line, it’s pretty clear that a significant number of Utahns are crossing into Colorado to acquire weed, then taking it home to smoke it. And that is how I learned that Mormons are closet stoners.
Let us now put an end to Day 6 of this trip, with another northwest Colorado sunset. This one was just outside Rangely…
Voyages with Parkinson's 