Monday, Oct 17
It was a GORGEOUS autumn day – a super day for driving. Utah sent us off with all its autumn splendor. We drove along Route 40 – not a primary road – because we didn’t feel like Interstate driving. Instead, we took the more scenic route, and it was a real treat. So many beautiful golds and oranges against a gorgeous sunny blue sky. Nice day to be on the road.
The first parts of our journey took us through the Wasatch and Uinta National Forests. (We had just been in the Wasatch the previous few days over the weekend.) And then it slowly turned into … not much at all. Lots of big expanse of land, not much civilization. There was a long time between “cities.” And then, when you got to one of those, ahem, “cities” on the map, you had to be careful not to blink before you were through it and out the other side. So different from the east coast!
We were on the road for a few hours, and my gauge of our progress was how close to the Colorado border we were getting. (Western states are really big!) We were getting close to the eastern border of Utah, when suddenly I started seeing signs for Dinosaur National Monument. Hey – that sounded kinda cool. When it came time, we turned off and stopped for a look.
Yes, there were dinosaurs in this part of the world … 149 million years ago. This one is fake ...
... but these bones here … they are real.
And yes, they really are 149 million years old!
The signs in the museum and the bones quarry told us the story about how this big flat plain used to be a river bed. There are questions about why so many dinosaur bones ended up in this particularly rich spot for fossils. The leading theory is that there was a long drought, which killed many dinosaurs, many of which died along the river. Once heavy rains returned, additional dinosaurs were killed, while the carcasses of others who had died “upstream” were also transported by the water further downstream. As floodwaters receded, the bones dropped to the bottom of the riverbed, were covered with mud and silt and piled up, waiting to be discovered by humans.
The first human to uncover those dinosaur bones was Earl Douglass in 1909. Douglass was a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.
Take a look at the terrain. Don’t the hills themselves look like dinosaur backs? Is that how Douglass guessed that there were dinosaur bones beneath the surface?
Here are some more shots of the surrounding scenery and the current river. It’s so broad and open – very easy to see how this was once a massive river.
We made a few phone calls from Dinosaur before getting back on the road. We had gotten on the road early that morning and were making good time. I was in the mood to cover some ground.
We kept driving on Route 40. East! East! East!
We were headed to Boulder, Colorado, where we would spend a few days with friends.
We were headed to Boulder, Colorado, where we would spend a few days with friends.
Earlier in the day, I had seen the town of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, on the map. Something about the name made me want to see it and spend the night there. (Was I really looking for a steamboat???) So I drove us all the way to Steamboat Springs, which was a total of about 335 miles from Salt Lake City, or more than six hours of actual driving, not counting the stop in Dinosaur.
(For most of our trip, Auggie and I had made a point not to drive more than about 250 miles or four hours per day, so we didn’t overdo it. The urge to get east was strong in me now, so apparently that rule no longer applied. I drove us on to Steamboat Springs!)
I had been listening to local radio on the drive and learned that it was going to be a cold night. Steamboat Springs was at altitude, nestled right in the heart of the Colorado Rockies, so we were going to face the brunt of it. Get ready for another cold night, Auggie!
We found our campsite just outside of Steamboat Springs and settled in. The lady running the campsite told us they were closing down in two days’ time, another sign the cold weather was on its way big time.
Auggie and I took a nice evening walk to shake out the long day of driving from our bones. We were treated to another beautiful sunset and evening sky. Look at those purple mountains with the pretty autumn colors. Wow!
After our walk, we cooked dinner, settled in and turned the furnace on to get ready for the cold. Shame I couldn’t clone Auggie – it sure would have been good to have more dogs to keep me warm!
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