Wander the West

Misadventures at Dinosaur National Monument

	Canyons at Dinosaur National Monument

2006

Dinosaur National Monument resides mostly in northwest Colorado, but part of the monument extends west into Utah. While driving home to Oregon from Colorado, I decided that I wanted to see some dinosaur bones so I would give the monument a quick tour.

Mistake number 1: There are no Dinosaurs at Dinosaur National Monument

I found out through later reading that there is (was) only one place to see dinosaur bones at the monument - the Dinosaur Quarry Visitor Center north of Jensen Utah. However, this center has been closed indefinitely due to serious and dangerous structural problems in the building. So there you go, no dinosaurs for you.

Mistake number 2: Not all national monuments can be visited without planning

I guess I was used to driving into a place like Crater Lake or the John Day Fossil beds, and finding what I was looking for, a lake or fossils. I foolishly thought that I could choose a road going into Dinosaur National Monument and find what I was looking for - dinosaur bones. This is not the case. Also foolishly, I bypassed the visitor center at the town of Dinosaur so that I could "hurry up and get into the monument", expecting I could find my way around. I made the long 50 plus mile drive into the monument to find that the road simply ended with a view of the canyons, and that was all there was. Now that I was really feeling dumb, I raced back to the visitor center to see what I had missed only to find that it closes at a curiously early 4:30 - during the summer tourist season. I left Dinosaur National Monument knowing nothing about what it was about or where the dinosaurs were.

The monument does have some spectacular scenery and I am glad that the canyons are protected by the monument status. However, if you are looking for dinosaurs, look elsewhere.

- Aaron Walton