Bordering Utah and Colorado is a 512 mile National Scenic Byway named The Dinosaur Diamond Highway. Along the route are museums, fossil quarries, rock art, federal historic sites, national parks and several state parks that contain 200 million years of history. Extend the route into Wyoming and a picture begins to form of paleontology’s wild west atmosphere in the 1870’s. Current day fossil digs utilize much of the same equipment as used during the Bone Wars in the harsh arid desert conditions of the Colorado Plateau. Our plans while exploring this route even include participating as volunteers at a couple of digs along the way. Join us as we travel the prehistoric canyons and plateaus of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming this summer.
The Wide Open Road
Traveling a rainy but circuitous route to avoid driving through Las Vegas, our first stop was at Moapa Valley, NV at a Boondockers Welcome spot. The hosts were from Ohio and they provided a large private area for overnight guests which overlooked a beautiful valley and oasis. It was so peaceful to sit outside and gaze at the incredible view. A horny-toad lizard, a red-tailed hawk and sounds of the neighbor’s crowing rooster added to the wonderful experience.
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St. George, Utah
Entering Utah, we drove through some of the most stunning rock lined miles we have ever encountered.
Our next stop was Sand Hollow State Park.
With beaches and dunes of RED sand, the park encircles a large man-made reservoir. Water sports abound here and rentals are available for everything from powerboats to diving equipment to paddleboards to OHVs and more! It was quite the playland and yet the campsite felt spacious.
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Our first museum stop on the Dinosaur Diamond Highway was the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site.
The St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site Museum contains huge slabs of dinosaur trackways over 200 million years old from the Jurassic period. Fossils and casts were also on display in this beautiful museum. The quantity of footprints and the number of different dinosaur species makes this the best tracksite in the west. All the trackways were discovered at the Johnson Farm. Volunteers continue to work on the slabs to uncover tracks under the layers of sediment, sandstone, mudstone and other matrix. It was a new thing to learn that tracks have a separate or different name than the dinosaurs that make them. Seeing the trackways emphasized the enormity of these beasts. We also got our first glimpse of a Paleontology Lab where the fossils are brought from the field for the meticulous work of removing them from the rock, cleaning, and assembling.
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While in St. George, we grabbed a burger at Morty’s Cafe, a local favorite,
and visited the Red Hills Desert Garden in Pioneer Park.
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Fremont Indian State Park and Museum
The highways through Utah have given us some of the most picturesque scenery in all our travels. I-70 was lined with canyons of red rock and sandstone. When excavating for the highway, a large area of ruins were unearthed in this area near Joseph, UT. Archaeologists had only a short time to remove the artifacts before construction continued. Fremont Indian State Park preserves one of the largest settlements of canyon people ever found. The Fremont Indians lived in the region of the Colorado Plateau from about 700 AD until 1300 AD. Not just a single tribe or nation, they were an ancient culture comprised of numerous clans living a combination of hunter-gatherer and agrarian traditions. Remains of kivas (underground huts) and their petroglyphs and pictographs are found throughout Utah, Colorado, and Wyoming canyons, caves, and river cliffs. The museum at Fremont Indian State Park offered displays of artifacts as well as an outdoor trail system to view the settlement’s ruins and rock art.
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Encountering the variety of historic and prehistoric attractions along this route, we began to realize this could easily become a lifetime of exploring! We can’t wait to find out what’s under the next rock here along the Dinosaur Diamond Highway route!
CAMPGROUND REVIEW: SAND HOLLOW STATE PARK
We stayed in the West Campground section for three nights. Our pull-in site with full hook ups included a picnic pavilion, fire pit, grill, and picnic table. We were a short walk to the west end of the Sand Hollow reservoir where the boat launch, beach and cliff diving were located. Sites were arranged in terraced loops, so each felt very spacious with nice views of the red cliffs and sand dunes. Site was level, access from the highway was easy. Showers and restrooms were cleaned every day. One of the newer state parks in Utah, numerous water sports are available with rentals onsite for ATVs, boats, jet skis, paddleboards, snorkel and diving equipment, disc golf, kayaks, and more. Understandably, the weekend was very crowded! Sites can be reserved online.
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Next up…Dinosaur Diamond Highway: Moab, UT!
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