Greetings Friends and Family from Southeastern Utah.

Above you see the Flaming Gorge Canyon and reservoir which was part of the Green River. Location for you is south of Rock Springs, Wy.  A dam was built to create the lake and now it is a place for lots of recreation. Since we were driving south on Labor Day we saw lots of folks swimming, boating, fishing, and enjoying the lake. The colors and rock folding in the geology of the canyons was impressive. Below you see an almost complete skeleton of an Allosauus a carnivorous dinosaur found in Dinosaur National Monument just east of Vernal Utah. Its serrated teeth were perfect for tearing flesh of its prey. In this park there are estimated 1500 dinosaur bones. There is a quarry pictured below where in the Jurassic period ( 150 million years ago), floodwaters carried the jumbled bones of some 500 dinosaurs representing ten species. Today you can see the bones in the quarry. Erosion eventually exposed the fossils. In 1909 Earl Douglas excavated here and many full size skeletons are in museums around the USA. The entire park is known as earth’s richest dinosaur fossil beds.  Much of the park is still not excavated. Below the photo of the quarry you see two photos of the petroglyphs in the park left by the Fremont peoples. To reach them we went off road in the jeep and climbed up the canyons for a better view. Keith spotted a prairie dog racing across the road but other than that the animals were hiding.  We did find a snake skin on the trail. 

All in all our short two day visit to Utah was rewarding;.  Dinosaur National Monument was well worth the visit. Our  travels continue to Colorado.

Look for future posts and remember to be good to yourselves.

Cheers,

Susan and Jim

ere iany