Dinosaur National Monument

We are now headed, in short hops, towards Yellowstone National Park. Our first stop on the way is the tiny town of Jensen, Utah, just southwest of Dinosaur National Monument. To get here we took Colorado Route 139 which went up through Douglas Pass. This is looking back at the route just before we crossed the summit. Happily, the new brakes on the Tundra performed well on the several mile long, very steep downhill on the other side of the pass.

This area still has desert hills, but the valleys are all green. This is looking towards Dinosaur National Monument from the campground. The white mountain is Split Mountain. The Green River cuts a zig-zag path right through the mountain. The geology is similar to that of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River. Many layers of loose material once covered the area. The Green River had cut a course through these layers. Then the land was pushed up. The river was confined and so continued to erode down through what became Split Mountain.

This afternoon we drove out along the Cub Creek Road following the guide book for the Tour of the Tilted Rocks. A side turn took us to where the Green River emerges from its canyon through Split Mountain.

It rolls past this huge rock wall before continuing its journey.

We stopped at several sites with petroglyphs. Some, like these were petroglyphs with coloring added. These are called pictoglyphs. We had never seen those before.

These images are about 1000 years old. I used the color enhancing program on this one because it brings out the way some images are made of a series of pecked dots. I had not seen that before, either.

My favorites were this huge lizard (close to 6 feet long) and…

this flute player.

Up on the ledge with those images was this Ephedra. It was covered with brownish buds and very striking blue beetles with red lines between their dorsal and ventral sides.

So much beauty, big and small!