Jurassic Park in my back yard.
I read in the Moab Sun News about 2 sites just north of Moab, Utah that held some interesting foot prints of dinosaurs. Naturally this got my attention.
Back in 1993 when the movie Jurassic Park came out my daughter became interested in everything dinosaur related. So with the help of a geologist and the mineral records at a university we set out cross country through the Nevada desert in search of fossils. We actually found some great sites that held fossilized bone fragments, beaver teeth (beavers like 10 feet long) and fish fossils. But now I'm in Utah which is probably as close to Ground Zero for all thing paleontology related, so I set out to see the tracks. The first set are located about 20 miles north of Moab on Hwy 191. Take the North Klondike Road about 2 miles to a small dirt parking lot and hike 500 feet up the trail to the site. The tracks in this photo are made by a Sauropod; a large herbivore. What is really cool is that the tracks clearly show the dinosaur making a right turn in the mud which is rare as far as finding tracks go. There are also many 3 toed carnivorous along side the Sauropod's tracks suggesting possibly a hunting party.....cool stuff to imagine as your standing there.
The second site is located 10 miles north of Moab on Willow Springs Road. This road was the original entrance into Arches National Park and is described by Edward Abbey in his book Desert Solitaire". Go about 3.4 miles to a site on the slick rock that has a display sign posted and look for small clusters of rocks that people have placed next to the tracks.
I read in the Moab Sun News about 2 sites just north of Moab, Utah that held some interesting foot prints of dinosaurs. Naturally this got my attention.
Back in 1993 when the movie Jurassic Park came out my daughter became interested in everything dinosaur related. So with the help of a geologist and the mineral records at a university we set out cross country through the Nevada desert in search of fossils. We actually found some great sites that held fossilized bone fragments, beaver teeth (beavers like 10 feet long) and fish fossils. But now I'm in Utah which is probably as close to Ground Zero for all thing paleontology related, so I set out to see the tracks. The first set are located about 20 miles north of Moab on Hwy 191. Take the North Klondike Road about 2 miles to a small dirt parking lot and hike 500 feet up the trail to the site. The tracks in this photo are made by a Sauropod; a large herbivore. What is really cool is that the tracks clearly show the dinosaur making a right turn in the mud which is rare as far as finding tracks go. There are also many 3 toed carnivorous along side the Sauropod's tracks suggesting possibly a hunting party.....cool stuff to imagine as your standing there.
The second site is located 10 miles north of Moab on Willow Springs Road. This road was the original entrance into Arches National Park and is described by Edward Abbey in his book Desert Solitaire". Go about 3.4 miles to a site on the slick rock that has a display sign posted and look for small clusters of rocks that people have placed next to the tracks.
No comments:
Post a Comment