{"id":314,"date":"2021-06-12T01:13:40","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T05:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/?p=314"},"modified":"2023-02-02T13:07:43","modified_gmt":"2023-02-02T18:07:43","slug":"dinosaur-national-monument","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/excellent\/dinosaur-national-monument\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinosaur National Monument"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We left our friends and headed north to Vernal Utah and Dinosaur National Monument. I did what was so far the oddest overnight in some god-forsaken town in the Utah desert. I called and was told a woman would meet me and show me to the site. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was there – dressed in a house dress that reminded me of a Mennonite. She proceeded to show me to what passed there as a site (in a Mormon hayfield I figured) and talked to me the whole time I was setting up (more like sort of told me what to do \ud83d\ude16). I asked her if she was a Mormon and she told me no<\/strong> – she quit the Mormons and now believe it is a cult \ud83d\ude02. She told me I needed to be a Baptist and then proceeded to tell me how to identify polygamous housewives at the local market. Bizarre but oddly fit right in as another somewhat weird excellent adventure \ud83d\ude0e\ud83d\udc36.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vernal<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Vernal is the Utah gateway to Dinosaur National Monument. The Monument spans both Utah and Colorado. Like Kanab it caters to a variety of outdoor experiences for the visitor. We setup camp and did some resupply later the day of our arrival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We spent the next day exploring the Monument<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Entrance<\/a><\/figure><\/div>
\"Entrance<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

River Trail<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Based on our earlier experiences I knew I needed to take Jake out early if we were going to do any hiking. The only trail open to dogs goes along the Green River between two campsites. It was a really nice trail – we went about halfway from the Split Mountain campground before turning back. The campground was full of cars and trucks pulling trailers for rafting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"River<\/a><\/figure><\/div>
\"Start<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"Dinosaur<\/a><\/figure><\/div>
\"Dinosaur<\/a><\/figure>
\"Dinosaur<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"River<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Visitor Center and Fossil Gallery<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We headed back to the Adventure for lunch. Jake has gotten really good about staying in the trailer so that afternoon I headed back for a tour of the visitor center and fossil gallery. I found out the day before you needed to have a ticket – I got one on line easily before the visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also took the opportunity to really drive the X6 for the first time on the windy backroads from Vernal to the Monument entrance. A little excellent bonus fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once at the visitor center I waited for the shuttle to the Fossil Gallery. I took the opportunity to learn how the area was a river bed at one time. It is believed that a global, cataclysmic event caused a drought that killed huge numbers of dinosaurs whose final resting place because this Monument. A cautionary tale, perhaps.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"View<\/a>
View from Fossil Gallery at \u2068Dinosaur National Monument\u2069<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The gallery is literally the side of a mountain excavated to show a cacophony (I have always wanted to use that word!) of fossils from the animals piled on top of each other over millions of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>
\"Fossil<\/a><\/figure>
\"A<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div>
\"Visitor<\/a><\/figure><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

As I touched a fossil resting in the stone, I was left breathless imagining what it must have been like 100 million years ago – a mere sliver of time in the earth’s 5 billion years. It was an electrifying and deeply moving experience. A most excellent experience – and adventure – for sure!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Touching<\/a>
Touching the Past at \u2068Dinosaur National Monument\u2069<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photos and experiences visiting Vernal Utah and nearby Dinosaur National Monument<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[21,7,73],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-excellent","tag-excellent-adventure","tag-travel","tag-utah"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Dinosaur-Sticker.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3480,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314\/revisions\/3480"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.tubridy.net\/newblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}