Common Mom

Wow! That’s the expression I have for what we got to see this past weekend. We took a tour of the canyon that contains the largest documented site of dinosaur tracks in North America. It was AMAZING! Not only did we get to see dinosaur tracks, which was totally way cool, we also got to see Indian Rock Art, an ooooooooold Catholic Church and cemetery, and one of the original ranches in the canyon, dating back to the early 1800s. The entire tour was 8 hours long - it was HOT in the canyon, but it was fun. We took an auto tour - meaning we drove our own vehicle and followed the forest service dude 10 miles out in to the middle of nowhere and down in to the canyon on the tiniest 2-track dirt and rock road. You can get there on foot, IF you want to hike 5.5 miles ONE WAY through cactus-filled desert-like prairie and down in to the canyon - there is no water and no shade anywhere to be seen - then you can hike back out because you’re not allowed to camp in the canyon since it’s prone to flash flooding, even during the droughts. So we chose the auto tour. I have quite a few photos of our day, but I’m going to concentrate on the dinosaur part in this post. Just FYI, taking photos of dinosaur tracks from the ground is a bit like taking photos of the Grand Canyon. It’s cool and all, but you had to be there to appreciate it.

Here’s Jason and Keira by the sign pointing the way to the dinosaur tracks.

The sign letting us know that we have indeed arrived.

A sign talking about some of the tracks we’ll see.

There was no doubt that you found the tracks! They were amazingly easy to see. It was REALLY cool! Here is one allosaur track.

So you can get an idea of the size, here is Keira with her hand in the track.

To get to the biggest set of tracks, we had to wade across the river. The clay getting to the river was very slick, and the river bottom itself was very slick with lots of deep holes. You had to walk very carefully and feel before you actually stepped, unless you wanted to take a bath. We had to carry the kids because the water was to their waste in some spots. Here’s Jason getting a free ride across the river.

After a picnic lunch on the other side of the river, we wandered around and explored the tracks. It’s truly amazing what you can see! The Brontosaur tracks are HUGE - almost look like elephant feet. It’s very easy to see exactly where they walked, and also that they walked side-by-side, suggesting a herd. It rained a couple days ago and the river got really high, so there was water and mud in the tracks. When I stepped in the tracks, the water was over my ankles - that’s a heavy footprint! This photo is of Jason standing at the end of a set of water-filled tracks.

I just can’t even explain how cool this was! The aerial photos that they showed us of the tracks were really neat. Of course all good things must come to an end. So we hopped back in to the Jeep and started the drive out of the canyon. This is what the Jeep said:

Did I mention that it was a bit toasty in the canyon? And that it’s totally worth it to do the auto tour rather than then 11 mile hike?

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