15 July 2012

Eastern Utah is only green where irrigated.  There are giant crawling irrigation sprinklers making the land green.  You can easily see where the watering ends.

Dinosaur National Historical Monument was worth the drive and stop.  150 million years ago the caramasaurs roamed the area of the Uintah valley.  Then it is speculated that a flood occurred and killed off a whole bunch that eventually became exposed through continental upwelling.  During the Jurassic period allosaurus showed up.  All types of dinosaur bones have been excavated in the Uintah valley, between the Green and Yamas Rivers.   Most of the valuable bones that were part of one animal were sent off to Carnegie Museum. The first picture is wall of mixed dinosaur bones that was found in the early 1900s.  The wall is now housed inside a viewing building.  The head pictured below is an actual allosaurus skull and not a replica.  The third picture is off some bones still outside in the field.

From Jenkins Utah we headed east and south towards Grand Junction Colorado.  You can definitely tell when you cross into Colorado, as the irrigation stops completely and the scenery turns high desert mountains brown.  The scenic road we took crossed the Douglas Pass, which is at 8,264 feet.  This picture was taken looking down from the pass and where we had just driven up from.

We’re spending the night in Fruita CO.  It is at the “gateway” to Colorado National Monument Park.  We’ll be driving through the 32 mile scenic road tomorrow.  Weather permitting, we plan on doing some short hikes as well.  Right now it’s threatening to rain some more.