Today was a day to do the things that tourists do. We're in the Dinosaur Capital of the World, a diamond-shaped area which houses the Dinosaur National Monument, more fossils than just about anywhere in the nation, and plenty of dayglo-colored dinos lining the side of the main drag.
Pinkosaurus, holding an Uzi
The town of Vernal is big enough to have two movie theaters (one is a four-plex), a Wal Mart and a Big K, and a smattering of hotel accommodations. Two-thirds of the town is themed with Jurassic overtones, and the area has even set up a road-sign system (Drive Through The Ages) along the highway to indicate what geological period you're driving through as you go north.
Getting the Dirt
We drove up the strip to the Dinosaur Museum and parked the rig in front of the brick building. Plaster-of-paris dinos tangled in the front yard. A little lady sat at the front desk, below a diplodocus craning its neck around to check out the Fremont Indian exhibit. She took our five bucks and told us a wealth of information about how they find and excavate fossils. The museum was small but packed with exhibits, and the coolest part was an actual paleontology lab where they were uncovering fossils just brought in from the dinosaur quarry a few miles up the road.
B-Rex
Attached to the museum on one side is the Dinosaur Gardens, a walkway peopled with life-size sculptures that were all created by one man over a 12-year period and shipped into Vernal from all over the country. On the other side of the museum was a visitor's desk, where we spoke with two ladies in their 60s who uncovered all the cool spots in the area, and told us that we should come back in summer for sure to run the Green River. They had both taken the rapids trip last year, and couldn't recommend it more highly. They also gave us some tips for the fishing holes.
Aryn & Steg
From there we headed into the Dinosaur Quarry, and the national monument which is a huge 200-foot-long wall in the mountain with over 2000 dinosaur bones exposed on the face. The area had been excavated since the early 1900s, and when they reached the last layer they stopped digging and preserved the area into a museum-type situation where you can walk through and even touch some of the exposed fossils.
Wall of Fossils
Below the wall, the driving tour through the canyon loops through two campsites, and we saw the first one and called it home. Split Mountain rises up in a sheer face across the Green River, and layers of deep red, limestone green, and ochre clay paint the steeps. A step up from Wal Mart, for the same price.
We headed back into town to pick up a fishing licsense and some gear, and had a few adventures on the way. We spotted a band of off-roaders huddled atop a small hill aside the highway, so we pulled over to check it out. Jeremy, Jimmy, Chris and Dace leaned against their white Ford pickup and skeptically eyed the two strangers asking them questions. Eventually they warmed up a bit and shared some cool sites for dirt bikes and mountain bikes around the area.
The best laugh of the day came right along Highway 40, though, on the way to get the fishing gear. A muffler shop. See below.
No Caption Necessary, Don't you Agree?
