Ah, the Dinosaurs in Vernal. Many wooden cutouts and plastered molds lined the hotel and store fronts. More than I expected. Pretty cheesy. One colorful dino sported a bikini and a "let's swim" sign. Another at the city hall held a fish and was draped with off-season Christmas lights. The girls quickly claimed that the oversized PINK one was their favorite. A pitstop and picture was a must!
Another dinosaur we posed by more formally stood at the entrance of the Dinosaur National Monument's visitor center. A half-hour drive from our camp, this was a famous area I wanted to explore. Immediately after I snapped the dinosaur's full length, an old park ranger came up insisting that he take one of the whole family. Sure. Those are always nice. Of course as we stood there I quickly realized that no way would he get the whole thing to fit within the shot. Ah, well, the missed head was more closely examined later anyways.
Once inside the visitor's center, we were told that the "hike to the wall of dinosaur bones" was one that a bus drove tourists to every half-hour. If we could quickly get the kids in and out of the bathroom we'd make the bus leaving in five minutes. Hauling the big hiking pack to the back of the bus, we settled in just as it pulled out. We drove the few minutes up the highway and were dropped at the trail head. The fact that there was "no shade, no bathrooms, no water" as the visitor center's host explained became quickly apparent. Although we were on the trail by 10:00, it was already blazing hot.
We started hiking with the instructions from the bus driver that "once you get going you'll meet up with another park ranger who will help you know what you are looking at." That sounded good. We were off. We moved around some slow walkers. We saw a few pictographs on a rock. We saw many anthills and darting lizards. Then we came to the ranger.
Turns out this was a very guided tour. A very "informative" hike were one was required to stop and listen to every word the guide had to tell. I understand the need to have the area closely supervised. No one wants visitors taking the ancient artifacts. I understand the need to have the skill of bone hunting taught. No one could really pick out the small bits of brown had they not been pointed out. But really, you want us to keep a family of kids happy behind big adults? You want me to remain calm along this dropoff?
The girls did pretty well. Meg was very interested learning how to find bits of bone! She eagerly rubbed spots in question. "If your finger comes away without any white dust, it is likely a bone!" taught the Ranger. Paige also listened and compared her vertebrate to the one pointed out. Matt and I, however, felt very much like Tyler. We wanted off of the confined trail. It was cool history, yes. But, a big, slow walking crowd...huddled on a cliffside around a disappointingly small amount of bone bits, not our ideal.
("Look high. Look low. Look over and back! The small brownish spots are the bone." -enthusiastic guide)
("Now that larger bone jutting out is one I can easily recognize." -Me)
("They really ought to just have bright yellow arrows attached to the rock pointing out where something really is." -Me)
("Can you feel that bump behind your neck?" -Ranger)
("Move, people, MOVE!" and "This is making me feel older, I mean a lot younger." -Matt)
("Are we done yet? Can we hike back down the trail?" -Paige)The famous quarry, a building built around a huge collection of dinosaur bones, is currently under construction. It is set to reopen this Fall. I'm certain a visit would be more exciting when that is an added option. But we won't be returning to find out. For now, we all kind of felt that the bus ride to and from the site was far more exciting that the spot itself. Don't note our sweaty mess on the return ride below, as much as our facial expressions that prove ready to head out!
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