We debated going to Dinosaur before Arches but we really wanted to book a campsite with hookups to break up our dry camping. It turns out there is a season for that so we ended up going to Dinosaur after Arches within a couple days of the season starting. It meant quite a bit more driving but we didn’t have to dry camp for 2 weeks straight.
Dinosaur spans into both Utah and Colorado. The Utah side is where all the dinosaurs are. The Colorado side is where the rafting, hiking etc are. We went to the Utah side and stayed at Outlaw Trail RV Park just 7 miles from the visitor center.
Dinosaur is a really awesome park. The quarry exhibit hall has the biggest wall of Dinosaur fossils we’ve ever seen. And apparently this wall is just like 1/4 or less of the original wall of bones that have been excavated and sent around to museums. All of us loved looking at the wall and getting to touch real fossils.
The museum and giftshop were also really fun and had all sorts of things I had to fight the urge to buy. Ben and I tried really hard to get Andrew to agree to buying a replica allosaurus finger but he wouldn’t agree. We settled on a cool postcard to send to someone else.
There is also an area of petroglyphs that is easily accessible by a scenic drive on an unpaved road and a quick walk. It was a great 1 to 1.5 day visit.
Be the first to reply