Let’s visit a place that’s off the well-worn tourist path.                     

                                                Dinosaur Trail in Utah

            Bound for the Grand Canyon in Arizona, we crossed into Utah out of Colorado and hung a left. Heading south, Ruthie and I were open to see other sights on the way.  Stopping in at the first visitor’s center we came to, we asked attendant Helen if there were any interesting places around here for us to visit.

            Her face lit up. “We just opened another part of our state park at Mill Creek Canyon. The rock formations are beautiful but the new part has dinosaur fossils and we love showing them off! Interested?”

            Whenever we hike we’re nuts for looking at pretty rocks and especially ones which bear fossils. Nodding eagerly, we told her sure.

            “Good! A little ways south you’ll see mile marker # 142. Turn right and follow the dirt road for a couple miles. This’ll take you right to the dinosaurs…” Pausing, she eyed our sneakers. “…but wear your hiking shoes!”

            Within the hour and wearing our well worn boots we stood at the trailhead above Mill Creek Canyon. As Helen promised, the late morning sun was lighting up its sheer walls in gorgeous yellows and reds. To the left a pair of sandstone columns towered before the canyon’s far wall like giant golden spikes. There was only one other car here and its owners were getting ready to leave. There was no one else in sight.

            I said, “Sweetie, if this was in Wisconsin it’d be mobbed by now. We might be among the first ones who’ve ever been here!”

            She pointed at the ground. “See these mountain bike tracks? Those people are first ones to find any place.” True. You’d find their tracks in the deepest, darkest jungle.

            Directly below was a dry wash and along its half-mile length were signs explaining the exposed fossils. I was leaned over the edge. “Let’s head down!”

            She laughed, “We’d better…before you fall down there! You’re as bad as our grandkids with dinosaurs!”

            Posted at the start of the trail, the first sign said that the ground we walked on was the Morrison Formation, a mix of shale and sandstone made of sediments laid down one hundred-fifty million years ago. The strata had once been the bottom and shoreline of an ancient sea. The next sign pointed up at a large reddish-brown fossil clearly exposed in the cream-colored rock.

            A kid seeing his favorite toy in a store, I yelled, “Look at that! It’s a leg bone!”

            Ruthie read me the sign; “This is the femur of an Allosaurus, a carnivorous monster forty feet long and tall as a house.” She shook her head. “Imagine! These huge, scary things were actually stomping around right here where we are!” Excited as me, she kept the camera busy from here on.

            Shortly we came to a large boulder which if seen from the side, looked an awful lot like a dinosaur’s head. And no it wasn’t a fossil, but just the way it was shaped. Inspired, I started crushing my blue neckerchief into a ball.

            She groaned, “No, don’t tell me! You’re making…?”

            I finished, “…it’s eye! That boulder even has a socket in the right place to fit it!”

            “Fine dear, but be careful going up!”

            “Yeah-yeah, but get some good shots! When our grandsons see it they’ll flip!” They did and so do I whenever it pops up as a screen saver.

                                                See what I mean?

            Anyway, we followed from one marker to the next as they pointed out other prehistoric species, along with a petrified tree. By the time we were done, our untrained eyes had been taught how to spot well-hidden fossils so well, we felt like real Indiana Jones types with searching them out. What fun!