Dinosaur Bones!!

We decided to split the drive to Dinosaur National Monument into two days so we could have a Riley day at Starvation Lake. There are six campgrounds with varying amenities in the Fred Hayes State Park at Starvation Lake. You know our boy loves the water, so we planned to spend Tuesday night, 9/10, at the Lower Beach campground – hookup sites right on a sandy beach! However, when we arrived, we saw “No Dogs on the Beach” signs posted every 20 feet at the campground. That sucked. So we scouted the nearby Indian Bay campground and snagged a huge site right on the (unposted!) lakeside. It’s a primitive campground with no hookups and we were the only ones there!

Pretty awesome spot for a Plan B.

We caught a little rain and a bit of a light show from a passing thunderstorm. But it cleared up quickly and Riley got lots of off-leash ball time, water play and walkies.

Riley time!

Standing stones along the shoreline.

The next morning we were sitting in bed with our morning coffee when we heard a large bang, followed by a buzzing noise. What the???  A quick investigation revealed that a hose to the water heater had burst. We quickly turned off the water pump (the buzzing noise) and Rog tried the water heater by-pass, no luck. The burst hose was, of course, the most inaccessible and it looked like the water heater would have to be pulled to replace it. Ugh! Rog debated trying to fix it himself, but long story short we found an RV repair place in Vernal, UT that could get us in right away and several hours and $320 later we were back in business.  

Uh-oh. Trouble in paradise. 

While the short bus was in the shop, we took Riley for a drive to scope out our next destination, the Green River campground in Dinosaur National Monument. We reserved our spot, a nice pull-through a short stroll from the Green River. It was a good call, by the time we claimed the coach and made it back to the campground the pickings were slim. We spent the evening in camp just hanging out, letting Riley get his feet wet, and enjoying the storm clouds over the River.

Dramatic storm clouds over the Green River.

Sunshine today!

Gorgeous full moon and a great night for a campfire.

The next morning, we headed for the Visitor’s Center and the Fossil Quarry. To be honest, I think fossils are pretty cool but I’m not really dinosaur crazy. After visiting the Fossil Quarry I may be a convert. I have never seen anything like this ever. Wow! In 1909, Earl Douglass a paleontologist from the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, PA found eight tail vertebrae from an Apatosauraus here. Over the next 15 years, a section of sandstone 600 feet long and 40 feet high was removed, unearthing literally tons of dinosaur bones. A section of the hill and over 1,500 dinosaur bones was left in place so we could experience some of the wonder of his amazing discovery.

You don't have to be dinosaur crazy to be awestruck by this incredible glimpse into the past.

Pano of the hillside display. Wow.

Why so many bones in one place? The theory is that this was a site of a ancient river. A drought caused a huge die off with many dinosaur carcasses left along the dry riverbed. When the rains returned, the bones were swept into large piles, which were later silted over and eventually fossilized. Bones from ten different species and over 400 individual dinosaurs were found at the quarry site. And yes, you can touch the bones! Sorry Riley, none for you though. We also hiked the Fossil Discovery Trail near the quarry where you can see fragments of dinosaur bone lodged in the stone along the trail.

A literal logjam of dinosaur bones!

Eat your heat out Riley. Lol. 

We did the scenic drive to see some of the other park features. There are several areas where you can see petroglyphs created by the Fremont peoples over 1000 years ago. The giant lizard petroglyph was especially impressive. We are in awe of the effort that went into the artwork, especially considering they’re located halfway up a cliff face!

Loved the lizard petroglyphs!

Elephant Toes Butte.

Vista from the petroglyph site. 

We also enjoyed a short hike into a box canyon from the homestead of Josie Basset Morris. Josie settled here in 1914 and lived alone without modern amenities, raising her own livestock and food until she died in 1964 at the age of 89. Quite the character, she was accused twice of cattle rustling (but never convicted) and was an alleged associate of the outlaw Butch Cassidy. Married five times, she ultimately chose to live her life alone and on her own terms. I am sure there are some stories there!

Josie Basset Morris homestead.

Josie fenced off the front and used the box canyon as a livestock pen.

On Friday we hiked the Sound of Silence trail. Near the end of the trail there is a spur trail where you can climb a steep sandstone hill for 360° views. Rog started up and then stopped to tighten his shoes. I passed him,  trudging along, bent over, head down, concentrating on the rock right in front of me (I did mention it was steep, right?) and then made the mistake of looking back (and down). Nope. That was it. I sat down and decided the view was good enough right where I was. After taking a couple pictures, I crab-walked back down on all fours while Rog went the rest of the way up and took some lovely panos. Lucky for you, one of us has no sense at all. Lol.

Sound of Silence trail.

A huge Yellow Garden Spider doing his thing along the trail.

Rog going up.

Far enough for me!!

See that tiny speck at the top? That's Rog. 

Pano from the top.
You can thank Rog. Lol. 

Loved the sandstone fins.

In addition to the quarry, Dinosaur National Monument has a whole lot more going on. There are two sides to the park, one in Utah and the other in Colorado. Dinosaur bones are only found on the Utah side, but that doesn’t mean you should skip the Colorado side. There are several signature hikes, but we decided to drive the 13 miles of dirt road down to Echo Park campground. It’s located by Steamboat Rock near the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers.

A portion of the 13-mile dirt road in - downhill all the way!

Rafters float past Steamboat Rock.

Along the way we stopped to see more petroglyphs and Whispering Cave. The cave was really cool – and by that, I mean about 20° chillier than the ambient air temp. Somebody left the air conditioner running! The layout was long and narrow and kind of creepy, with a huge section of rock with deep clefts up either side suspended just above your head.

The entrance to Whispering Cave.

It wasn't big inside, but it was a little creepy. 

We also stopped at the Chew Ranch, another early homesteader that came in 1910 and spent over 50 years ranching in this remote location. The family sold 1,900 acres to the National Park Service in 1966 and still owns and ranches much of land adjacent to the national monument. Apparently, they also owned an early prototype of the Airstream travel trailer! Lol.

Early Airstream! Lol!

On Saturday, Rog drove back to Vernal to hit the McCoy Flats system of mountain bike trails. It was apparent both from the names of the trails and the whimsical art that the trail builders had a sense of humor. He did three trails, “Got Milk?”, “And Cookies”, and “Jackalope” for a total of about 13 miles. He wasn’t quite so lucky this time. Jackalope had about a 1000 feet of elevation gain and it was a rocky, shadeless, barren climb from the pictures.  I think Riley and I were smart to hung out in our shady campsite with the occasional walkies for a dip in the river. Lol.

That looks like some desolate country to me. 

Fun art along the way. 

View across the flats.

We have a 3-night stay at the Steamboat Springs KOA scheduled next. Not my favorite type of camping, but it’ll give us a chance to top off the batteries, dump and fill the tanks, and do some housekeeping and laundry. It won’t be all drudge work, there’s also a rail-to-trail we’d like to check out and a pup-friendly brew pub too.

Then we’re off to Rocky Mountain National Park. We’re keeping a close eye on the weather – the campground is at 9000 feet and things can get iffy pretty quick this time of year. 😊  

From Pine Forests to the Craters of the Moon

It’s surprising how quickly we’ve fallen back into the rhythm of travel. I mean we did have the WHOLE summer off. Lol. Coffee by 7am, on the road by 9am, and off before 3pm. Since we’re traveling without reservations, the earlier we arrive the better our chances of snagging a good campsite. That said, we had our pick of spots at the Union Creek Campground outside of Baker City, OR when we arrived on Tuesday, 9/3. We enjoyed a quiet couple of days hiking and biking (Rog) and playing in the lake (Riley). The lake was low and a bit mucky around the edges but that did not deter our water pup in the least. In fact, he may have considered it an added bonus. Mom, not so much. 

Daddy's boy in the lake and on the trail.

Rog combined the North and Southshore trails to loop the lake on his mountain bike. He hasn’t ridden in a while, so he was happy for a pleasant 17-mile ride with no serious climbs. I thought about doing some biking (does that count at all?) but opted instead to take Riley on the trail and for another dip in the lake.

Rog does see some gorgeous scenery on his rides.

We drove into Baker City and were lucky enough to hit their Wednesday farmer’s market. It’s a cute little town with lots of shops, although nearly everything was closed by 4pm – talk about rolling up the sidewalks! We loved the metal art sculptures all down main street and made the obligatory stop at the local award-winning brewpub. Hey, it’s a tough job. 😊

Peppers at the Farmer's Market. Yum!

We loved the metal sculptures, but we never did figure out what the Africa connection was.

Sunset on the lake.

After a one-night stop at the Mountain Home RV park in (you guessed it) Mountain Home, ID we pulled into Craters of the Moon National Monument on Friday, 9/6. The Lava Flow Campground in the park is all first come/first served so we did well by arriving early. The park was completely full by late afternoon. One downside of the national parks is that very few allow dogs on the trails. So Riley had couch time and frozen bones to console himself while we hiked. 

A walk through the campground gave us lichen covered rocks and wild flowers.
Afterward Riley agreed to share the couch, but he wasn't happy about it!

We settled in and then walked to the visitor’s center to pick up a map and learn about the park. Craters of the Moon was established in 1924 and now encompasses 750,000 acres preserving nearly all of the Great Rift and its associated lava fields. The Great Rift is a 52-mile-long fissure that began erupting 15,000 years ago. Its most recent eruption was only 2000 years ago and geologists believe more activity is likely. (But none this week!)

The visitor’s center had a couple of informative movies and some very cool displays. I had no idea there were so many variations of lava! It was fun identifying the different types and formations during our hikes. Here’s a quick tutorial, but no quiz at the end – I promise!

Pahoehoe (pa-hoy-hoy) takes its name from the Hawaiian word for “ropy” and was very fluid forming coils or ropes.

Pahoehoe lava formation.

A’a (Ah-ah) is Hawaiian for “hard on the feet” (no, I'm not making this up!) and is a lava flow with rough, jagged edges. It was thicker than pahoehoe and pushed masses of broken rubble. We saw miles of this that would be nearly impossible to cross, even with your fancy hiking boots on.

A'a lava field - miles of sharp broken rubble. Yeah, I'd say "hard on the feet" is an understatement.

Lava bombs were another of our favorites, they come in different shapes and sizes, some weighing up to a 100 pounds! Breadcrust bombs are formed when the outside cools while the inside is still expanding and the crust cracks like a loaf of bread.

A breadcrust bomb and a really cool cross section.  

One of things that most surprised me and that I absolutely loved were the colors! I thought volcanic rock was black, dark grey, or a dull red. But here there are huge swaths with an iridescent blue crust. It is so striking; one area was named the Blue Dragon Flow. The blue is caused by titanian magnetite crystals suspended in the rock surface. We saw other volcanic rock with butterfly wing colors – who knew??

My absolute favorite new fun fact. The colors were amazing!

Oh yeah, I can see how Blue Dragon flow got its name. 

The cinder cones looked like huge, barren hills, but when we climbed Inferno Cone to the overlook - what a surprise, there were trees and a beautiful vista at the top!  I picked up some cinders on our climb and was amazed to see a rainbow effect. Did you know that a thin layer of glass coats the cinders that creates prisms that refract and reflect the light?

Rog trudges up the steep, barren hillside...

.... at the top, what a view!

A huge tree grows out of the cinders.

Can you see the rainbow sparkles???

The spatter cones were a little more desolate. What I didn’t realize is how they vary in color and texture. The details were fascinating. There was even one named Snow Cone that still had snow in the bottom.

A line of spatter cones dots the landscape.

Shadow picture in the crater.

Still some snow in Snow Cone!

The different colors and textures were fascinating.

Lava Cascades was an area where you could really get a sense of how the lava flowed across the landscape. Another cool feature are pressure ridges that formed when the lava underneath forced the hardened crust upward causing it to bend and buckle.

Lava Cascades.

Pressure ridges.

We did several hikes during our stay and one of my favorites was exploring the caves and lava tubes. Lava tubes are formed when the lava hardens on the outside but is still flowing underneath. When the lava flow subsides, the empty tube remains. There are several smaller caves (sections of collapsed tubes) in the park, but my favorite was Indian Tunnel. It was large enough to navigate easily (I am so not belly-crawling over sharp volcanic rock in the dark!) and had some absolutely stunning features. The tube is 30’ high, 50’ wide, and 800’ long and the roof has collapsed in several places letting in enough light to see by.

Indian Tunnel  - into the tube!

The size of the tube was impressive.

Check out the patterns on the ceiling. Very cool!

Deeper inside the tube.

An amazing example of colors and inclusions in this hunk of volcanic rock.

More color and texture - can you tell I was entranced?

Climbing out.

We checked out other caves too, but this one was a no go!

Other fun hikes led to tree molds and lava trees. Both formed when the lava encountered trees. The tree molds clearly show the impression of the lava-charred tree bark, while the lava trees are hollows left when the lava flowed around upright trees.

You can see the impression of bark patterns in the tree molds.

Lava trees.

Whew! Probably more than you ever wanted to know about volcanism. Lol. Ah, one more interesting fact. In addition to the other-worldly landscape, there is another lunar association to Craters of the Moon. In 1969 the Apollo Astronauts trained here in preparation for their moon missions!

Another neat feature. Not sure what this would be... maybe a Pahoehoe pressure ridge?? Lol. 

While moon missions are not on our agenda, we did have a lot of fun during our visit learning about the unique geology of the area.  From here we head to Utah and Dinosaur National Monument. That should be another fascinating blast from the past!