Summer Road Trip Part I of III: Dinosaur National Monument

During June/July we took a two-week summer road trip. We covered 3,000 miles, traversed six states, and visited three parks: Dinosaur National Monument, Grand Teton National Park, and Yellowstone National Park. Because we are all friends here, I would never subject you to a post quite that long. This post is part one of a three part series. Each part will cover one park.

Part I: Dinosaur National Monument

Part II: Grand Teton National Park

Part III: Yellowstone National Park

Just like every good road trip, we started with... chaos. Library books my kids realized were due while we were gone, an empty propane tank that needed filling, new internet needing installation (today, of course, of all days). Eventually, although four hours behind schedule, we were on the road. The clouds parted, the angels sang, and I was ready to take a nap. Good news: I had eight hours of driving to get that to-do checked off.

The main entrance to Dinosaur National Monument is located outside of Jensen, Utah. From our house in Northern California, this meant a 13 hour drive that we did over two days. Although you could try it in one, we don't do more than 8 hours or so a day with the kids because, sanity.

Speaking of sanity... here are a couple of Meyer Family Road Trip Tips:

Audiobooks made this summer road trip completely doable and, most of the time, a very pleasant experience. Since this trip would be long, I looked for a series that kids and adults would both enjoy. I settled on Land of Stories and it ended up being a great choice. The author, Chris Colfer, does the narration--as any audiobook connoisseur is apt to ask, yes, he does voices, and yes, he's good at it. After a few minutes of trying to place his voice, we figured out he played Kurt on the TV show Glee and it suddenly made perfect sense that he would be a good narrator. We listened to the first book, everyone loved it, and we downloaded the second one at a Starbucks on our next stop. All told, we made it about 20% into book four by the end of the trip. Bonus, Chris Colfer is doing a book tour this summer for his last book in the series and the girls and I are going to go in a couple of weeks!
Netflix and Amazon Prime apps will allow you to download shows to your device for free with your membership. These downloads take up less space on your device than a standard download from iTunes would and you can delete and add items whenever you are near wifi. This allowed us to let our youngest pick shows he liked and could watch periodically during the drives. At three, he wasn't super into the audiobook so it was nice to have an age appropriate option for him. Also, bring headphones. I love kids shows for him but listening to someone ask me 27 times if I see any triangles makes me want to start day drinking. Heavily.
Hungry? Find a place to eat and get your food to go, Yelp a local park, and eat there. Kids run around, adults get to eat without too much craziness, and everyone is happier once its time to reload.

After a night in Utah, we got up and headed for the park. We camped at the Green River Campground in Dinosaur NM. The campground has bathrooms with flush toilets and water, but no showers. It is right along the Green River and, bonus, each campsite has its own sandbox! That was an unexpected and major score. Henry took off with his sand toys the minute he hit pavement and told us he would be in the pit, digging for bones. You do you, Henry.

Dinosaur has a number of campgrounds (listed here), two of which offer reservations. I appreciated their reservation system as you could pick your specific site. We stayed in site 31 in the B-loop (the only reservable loop in Green River Campground) and it provided good shade cover and a central location near a restroom. There were sites available in the non-reservable loops while we were there but B-loop filled up and it was the nicest location. If you know your travel dates, I would make a reservation.

The Green River was pumping during our time there. It has been a big water year for a number of areas and most of the rivers we encountered along our trip were higher than normal flows. Because of this, there were no safe swimming locations. We walked along the river and enjoyed it that way instead.

There is a small amphitheater at Green River Campground and they offer a nightly Ranger program. The Rangers walked around and reminded all the campsites of the upcoming program each night. We learned about area geology one night and Josie Bassett Morris the next. Both were fascinating and insightful talks. We went to Josie's cabin while visiting so there is more on her below. Heads up--she was a badass.

We were in Dinosaur for two-nights and therefore, had one full day in the park. For us, this worked well. We are fine with making a lot of stops in a day and the park is a manageable size. We were not going to be doing any big hikes during our stay and knew this would be a warm-up stop to get into our grove for the long road ahead. You could easily stay here for several nights, however, and have plenty to do at a more relaxed pace. We were not able to make it up to Gates of Ladore for example, which would have been cool.

We spent the first half of our day in Echo Park. Dinosaur spans Utah and Colorado. The visitor center and Quarry Museum are both on the Utah side, where we stayed. Echo Park is on the Colorado side and well worth the drive. You get down to Echo Park via 13 miles of dirt road. They say no passenger cars, which is probably a good idea, but it is a pretty tame dirt road. The road is graded and you cannot drive on it when it is raining, probably to avoid stuck cars and deep ruts, so the terrain is pretty mellow. There are a number of things to see on the road to Echo Park.

Chew Family Homestead: The Chew Family lived on the property for over fifty years, during some of this time they lived in a one room cabin with eight people (and to think, I get stressed when we are all in the kitchen at the same time). The ranch (Pool Creek Ranch) was passed down to one of the Chew's sons and, eventually, the land was sold to the Parks Service. The Chew's still maintain a working farm directly across the river from the Green River Campground where we were staying. More on the Chew Family can be found here.

Whispering Cave: This cave is a cool, literally, little spot. The temperature drops significantly once you are inside. it doesn't look like much from the road but it you can sneak down the narrow openings in either direction and look for bats sleeping high above you. We didn't see any bats but it was still a fun stop.

Whispering Cave, Dinosaur NM (Echo Park)

Pool Creek Petroglyphs: There is a small sign along the road that simply says, "petroglyphs." The petroglyphs we found were dot-carvings done in the canyon wall by the Fremont people. Because of erosion, the petroglyphs are high above your head even though, when originally done, they would have been at eye level. They are a little hard to see in the picture below but, in person, they are really amazing and thought provoking. The wall is covered in various designs, many of which depict animals, and traditional headdresses.

Pool Creek Petroglyphs, Dinosaur NM (Echo Park)

When we finally made it down to Echo Park, the views were gorgeous. Unfortunately, the prolific mosquito population that resides near the river was relentless and we ended up eating lunch in the shelter of our car before making a quick run down to the water and heading out. I would suggest bug spray, or a mosquito net, or a blow torch if you visit. There is a tent only campground by the river as well if you want to camp at Echo Park.

Echo Park is the area where the Green and Yampa Rivers converge. Steamboat Rock towers over the confluence and the canyon walls boast beautiful striation patterns. There are a number of rafting companies that offer trips on both the Green and the Yampa Rivers. They often run through Echo Park but we didn't see any when we were there. The Yampa has been on Ryan's "must do," boating list for a couple of years and his desire to raft the river only intensified after our visit. We may be seeing Echo Park again very soon!

From Echo Park we drove a few of the scenic vistas while our youngest took a nap and then took a backroad toward camp.

Once back on the Utah side, we parked at the Visitor Center and took the shuttle up to the Quarry Museum. There is an interpretive trail between the Visitor Center and the Quarry but it was closed for repairs while we were there. It opens again in September 2017. It is supposed to have additional fossils along the way and interpretive signage.

The Quarry is a must see. The short story is this: scientists believe that, during a drought, dinosaurs came down to the river in large numbers to drink. Many of the dinosaurs died along the river banks and clogged the river channel, creating a dinosaur "log jam" of sorts. As their piled up bodies decomposed (that sounds plesant), their bones were left behind in concentrated numbers. In 1909, a paleontologist named Earl Douglass found a few vertebrae sticking out of the rock and, from there, one of the biggest fossil finds every discovered was unearthed. The Quarry contains a section of rock wall with over 1500 fossils encased within it. It is quite a sight to behold. There are additional fossils, many of which you can touch, throughout the space and the whole experience should be on your list if you visit the park.

Our last stop for the day was the Josie Bassett Morris cabin. The cabin is a quaint little log dwelling surrounded by open space where Josie used to keep chickens, an orchard, and gardens. She also raised cows and pigs here in two different box canyons located near her property. We hiked Box Canyon (the other is called Hog Canyon) and it was great. The trail is almost totally shaded, about a mile round trip, and sandy for much of the way due to the eroding sandstone that lines the canyon. I highly recommend walking one, or both, of the box canyons. The walk is flat so even our youngest walked most of it without complaining (which he will often do on the walk from the car to the front door, so, I'm pretty sure there were fairies or some other magical force at work in the canyon).

I could write about Josie Bassett Morris for days because the woman's life blows my mind. Here are a few tidbits. Josie was born in 1874. Due to illness, her father struggled with manual labor, so he raised the kids and took care of the house while Josie's Mom ran the ranch. Think about that. 1874. Dad raises the kids. I told you. Mind. Blown.

Josie learned how to do a multitude of things while growing up on the ranch and, as such, grew up to be a very self sufficient woman. After having two kids, being widowed once, and divorcing four times, she decided to homestead a property along Cub Creek in 1911. Let that sink in. She was divorced four times, prior to 1911. I wish I could meet her so, so badly. We could have had lunch. She would likely have order nails. Josie was around forty at the time she began homesteading and lived on her property until she was 89. She spent the majority of her years there tending to the ranch on her own.

The reason she left? Because she fell on the ice and broke her hip one day. Because she is, as I said earlier, a badass, she dragged herself to her cabin, grabbed a dog bowl full of snow on the way, pulled a quilt off a bed, and wrapped herself up in front of the fire to wait for her son who was set to come by in a few days. 89 years old. Broken hip. Taking care of business. According to the family, she was recovering with her son when spring rolled around. She asked him to drop her back at the cabin so she could plant the crops and prepare her land for the fall harvest. They told her that she could never go back and, within a few months, she died.

I learned most of this from the nightly Ranger program and when the Ranger got to the part about Josie passing away she paused for dramatic effect and gave the audience suggestions on causation. Complications from her fall? Old age? A broken heart? No one knows the answer of course but, if you ask me, I think she was a head-strong woman who wanted it her way or the highway. If she couldn't have it her way, she was going to take the highway--right on into heaven. I don't know what happens when we die but, if there is a heaven, Josie Bassett Morris is officially on my dance card.

After a full day of activities we headed back to camp and made dinner. The girls hovered next to a 10 and 12 year old set of brothers long enough that they finally asked them to join in their game of four-square. They ended up playing four-square and flash-light tag until quiet hours at 10pm and picked up right where they left off in the morning before we had to head out. The older kids were even nice enough to let Henry join in their games and it was great to watch them all having hours of fun with just some sidewalk chalk, a ball, and a couple of flashlights they pilfered from their parents, with not an app nor an iPad in sight. Hilarious side note, Henry had a headlamp on and would turn it to the red light setting for flashlight tag. He felt very stealthy. The older kids nicely ignored the fact that every bush he hid in lit up like a beacon. He also continually yelled, "I have my red light on guys!" while hiding. Flashlight tag. Three years old. Killing it.

I would highly recommend Dinosaur NM if you are in the area. Almost everyone we met was on a multi-stop road trip in and beyond the Utah area. Given the number of parks in the state of Utah alone, you could spend several weeks there. For us, Dinosaur was our only Utah stop but it was one we were glad we made. Next up, Grand Teton National Park!