The main attraction is this hillside which boasts something like 1500 fossils. They built this room around the hillside, so no one has to get cold or uncomfortable to view it.
Paleontologists finished up excavation of this quarry in the '90's after 60+ years of work. The numbers of discoveries facilitated by this site is impressively large. A major portion of what we know about dinosaurs today, came from work at this quarry.
Here's the boys very best dinosaur impressions:
I think little boys are attracted to dinosaurs, because of their impressive size and strange shapes. Nothing in our time equates. They're "other-worldly" to these guys, which makes them fascinating.
Sweety obviously had a hard time keeping up with all of us.
He took his rest wherever he could find it.
The upstairs area was even more impressive. It was far easier to see the fossils from eye-level.
Apparently this area was part of a wide river delta, back in the day. Paleontologists think that a great drought killed off many herbivores, which starved the carnivores. Later, a flood may have scooped them all into the river. Other bones were washed downstream and dumped, here, where the river leveled out and slowed down, forming the logjam of bones here now.
The natural beauty of this wide, barren place really touched my boys. They loved the vastness of it.
On the way down, Grandma Reeder read this book to us. It's about one of the most remarkable finds in the history of Paleontology--a fossilized dinosaur mummy! I had no idea such a thing existed! We ALL loved hearing this story. I definitely recommend this book to anyone, of any age, interested in dinosaurs.
The park also boasts many gorgeous petroglyphs that you can walk right up to and examine first-hand. They have signs, all over the place, begging visitors to keep their hands off. But it was still amazing to get right up to them and see the definition and scrape marks made by human hands from another time. Such a cool way to bring to life and interact with real people from so long ago.
Check out the beautiful lizards below. Apparently these are unique to this area. Archeologists haven't really seen lizards like this elsewhere.
The boys were very proud of themselves for their 1/4 mile hike up a hillside. I think that may have been the first time they experienced looking down at a place where they had been (my parent's van below) and understanding the distance they had traveled. They were so excited about it. ;)
That evening we had dinner at a fantastic local restaurant on the main drag. I can't remember the name of the place, but there aren't many to get it confused with. If you ever pass through Vernal, definitely check it out!
After dinner we stopped by the temple, which is so lovely.
Then we went to our hotel and crashed early. We were all good and tired!
The next day we went to the Vernal Dinosaur Museum, which was so much fun. There really was something for everyone in that place. Vernal really can be proud of what they've done there. We happened to come during their annual egg hunt, so admission was free (YEAH!), but there millions of people there (D'OH!!). We still managed to have a great experience and learned some cool things.
Sweety took these shots of belts and shoes--two of his favorite things:
There were fun surprises around every one of the many bends in this museum, even out the windows!
I loved this display of fossilized animal tracks. I thought it looked amazing, and the boys loved comparing their hand sizes to the ones on the wall.
Sweety found a truck (or rather half a truck), in the museum theater, that he was excited about:
Smarty loved doing impressions of the dinosaur models outside.
Grandma was a good sport and joined in the fun.
After our morning at the museum we grabbed lunch and headed home. It was a fantastic way to spend a couple of days. I can't wait to go back again!
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