Day 5 - Vernal/Dinosaur National Monument
Looking down at Vernal, Utah with the airport in the foreground.  I stayed overnight here two years ago and liked the airport and town.  Plus it is very close to Dinasaur National Monument.  I didn't have a chance to check it out by car last time but this time I do.
   
I liked the FBO Dinaland Aviation last time and it was ever better this time.  They had renovated their lounge area.  I enjoyed talking with the owner, John Gardiner, who has been running the FBO for 46 years!  Their gas prices are low, and they have not one but two courtesy cars.
   
I drove out to the Dinosaur National Monument, about 20 miles away.  It was kind of nice to drive a car after doing nothing but flying the last few days.
   
There isn't a whole lot in the Visitor's Center but I did buy my grandsons some little dinosaurs of the common type found in the nearby fossil quarry.  Plus a booked named "A Green River Reader" that was very helpful in putting together this web log.
   
Next I drove to the fossil quarry a mile or two away.  This is the fossil quarry building.  Paleontologist Earl Douglass discovered one of the world's great collections of fossilized dinosaure bones here in 1909.  At the time, very little was known about dinosaurs and the age in which they lived.
   
This was the view in the other direction from the fossil quarry parking lot.
   
They don't excavate fossils here anymore but this is a replica of what was called the "wall of bones" and is what it looked like when they dug.  If you look closely, you can see fossil bones just sticking out of the side of the wall.
   
An Allosaurus skull fossil.
   
The Allosaurus was the most common type of dinosaur fossils found here.   I'm guessing the Allosaurus was one of the ones to avoid if possible.
   
These are all the dinosaurs found here.
   
I left the quarry building and continued further into Dinosaur National Monument.  My old friend the Green River was visible along the way.
   
The Green River heading getting ready to head into the Uintah Mountains.
   
The road led to the Split Rock area.
   
 
   
 
   
The Green River looking the south.
   
A close-up of what I thought was Split Rock.  Actually, Split Rock represents the entire 10-mile mountain range.  The Green River splits it right down the middle.  I would see this tomorrow from the air.  Still, for lack of a name, I will call this big rock Split Rock.
   
Split Rock again, this time with the Green River flowing at its base.
   
A close up of the big rock.
   
The Cottonwoods showing their autumn color.
   
Major John Wesley Powell and his Green River/Colorado River expedition stopped at this very spot in 1869.
   
 
   
This was the spot.
   
A very peaceful place to rest.  Powell's expedition would need all strength they had with Desolation Canyon, Canyonlands and the Grand Canyon still ahead of them.
   

To see any more of the Dinosaur National Monument would have required a long drive and probably a full day.  Which I didn't have.  So I headed back into the town of Vernal after only a taste of Dinosaur NM from the ground.

This is what you see when you drive into Vernal from the east.
   

Like Price, Vernal also had a Dinosaur museum.  Each was good in its own way.  Both are worth your time.

In the lobby center was the fossil of the giant Diplodocus.
   
Here is our friend the Allosaurus again.
   
What I liked about this museum was its "dinosaur garden" where full size prehistoric animals and dinosaurs reside.
 
Woolly Mammoths like this lived in this area as recently as 10,000 years ago.
   
They call this the Utahraptor.  Nasty!
   
A Pterodactyl glides overhead.
   
A Diplodocus, and T-Rex hang out alongside the museum.
   
Yet another Allosaurus.
   

Everyone knows this one:  Stegosaurus.

For dinner I used Trip Advisor to look up the highest rated restaurant in Vernal.  It was a pizza place.  The comments made it sound like I might have a hard time getting a seat.  But when I arrived I was practically the only person in the place.  But it was very good; I can see why it is rated number one.
   
 
   
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