I'm Not An Old Fossil

I’m 4 1/2 years older than Elena, so she often ribs me about being old. Today (8/10) we visited Dinosaur National Monument, where the ~150 million year old bones made me seem quite young in comparison. We first visited the quarry site, which is an incredible collection of bones just jutting from the hillside where they were found. Many of the full dinosaur skeletons you see in museums across the country came from this site. The deceased dinosaurs all washed in and collected in a muddy stream bed over many, many years. After the soil was compressed into rock, the Morrison layer was then pushed up and tilted to almost a vertical position in this location. Many Camarasaurus were found here, along with Stegosaurus, Barosaurus, and the bitey Allosaurus, among others, We had to wear masks in the visitors center since the COVID delta virus variant is spreading. I have a new theory that the dinosaurs were actually wiped out by fact resistant and anti-vax dinosaurs of their time.

One fossil; one not-a-fossil

Bones in the hillside

A very bitey Allosaurus

And though it’s not even close to the same time scale, I always think of this Far Side cartoon when I’m around dig sites.

 After viewing the wall and quarry exhibit, we walked the trail back to the main visitors center. There were fossils scattered in the walls and colorful rocks. Because of the tilt, there are about 6 major rock layers in this one area representing about 80 million years of deposits.

Elena studying a dino femur in the hillside

Reach out and touch some . . . rocks

Colorful tilted rocks

The eastern part of the park has a very scenic drive, but once again, the smoke haze really limited visibility. We decided to skip the 62-mile round trip drive that would present disappointing and hazy views at the end. We drove just a few miles to the first overlook.You can see the distant objects are hazed out. 

Overlook off Harper's Corner road

We headed for Rifle Gap State Park in Colorado for the night. After locating our very nice campsite, we went just down the road to Rifle Falls for a nice evening hike. We had the place to ourselves - except for the bear and cub that had been spotted in the area. We didn’t see the bears. We also explored some caves and various angles of the falls - even above and behind them. It is a state park, so Bebop could also enjoy the falls and caves with us.

Rifle Falls

I've looked at falls from both sides now

Bebop at the falls

Elena investigates a cave while Bebop stays on alert

- Paul