Dinosaur National Monument & Fantasy Canyon

Saturday, October 24, 2009

On Saturday monring, Amanda and I set off early and headed north through the Book Cliffs. Our destination this weekend was Dinosaur national Monument. This area has been on our to-do list for quite a while, but after visiting the park it makes me wonder why we didn't head up there sooner. We will definitely be spending more time up there in the future

After a quick stop in Rangely to top off my tank, we made our way to the Colorado Visitors Center just outside of Dinosaur, CO. We looked around and got an official map (I can never have enough maps) of the park before heading further east on US 40 to our starting point off the pavement.

We took a left onto Wolf Creek Road and made our way into Dinosaur National Monument.



we followed the road across the Yampa Bench until we reached the spur to Wagon Wheel Point. This point offered great views down into the Yampa River canyon.









Our next stop was the Harding Hole Overlook



This overlook had a great view over gooseneck of the Yampa with the river winding it's way into the distance.



Along the Yampa Bench Road

Castle Park Overlook was the final overlook along this stretch of road.











Soon we reached the turnoff to Echo Park and made our way down the canyon to the Yampa.



Amanda spotted the Picaso Face

Then we stopped to check out the very cool Whispering Cave that sat at the base of a sheer cliff face.

Finally we reached Echo Park (Pats Hole) and Steamboat Rock.







We stopped at the old Chew Ranch on our way back to the Yampa Bench Road





After we made it back to the Yampa Bench Road, we continued on until we reached the paved Harpers Corner Drive. We took this road out to Harpers Corner where we took the short hike at the end. On the way back we stopped at a few of the overlooks along the way. We took a right onto the gravel Blue Mountain Road and headed southwest into Utah where we eventually met up with US 40 again.

Our next stop was at the Utah 'temporary' Visitors Center where we actually got to see a few read dinosaur bones. We had a nice chat with the ranger there, who gave us a lot of great information for future trips this way. We were thinking about hiking to some more dinosaur bones near the closed Dinosaur Quarry, but the weather got worse and it started to rain, so we cancelled that idea. Instead, we took the paved auto tour though this part of the park that lies to the south of Split Mountain.

It was starting to get late and we were hungry by the time we finished the auto tour, so we made our way to Vernal for the evening, where we had hotel reservations for the night.

To be continued....

Incredible as always man. Jealous.

Randy, did you have really good light? Or did you do a bunch of HDR stuff?

The only HDR ones are the one from the Harding Hole Overlook and the ones inside Whispering Cave

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Sunday morning after some breakfast, we headed northeast out of Vernal on the Jones Hole Road. After a few miles we turned off to follow the Island Park Road to Rainbow Park and Island Park.

Shortly after entering Dinosaur National Monument again, we stopped near McKee Spring to check out a number of petroglyph panels along the road.

The first panel we spotted




A few more hundred feet down the road we hiked up to rock face above the road here. There were a number of petroglyphs here.

After checking out all the petroglyphs, we continued on down the road to Rainbow Park, just to the north of Split Mountain.

We then headed down to Island Park.




Ruple Ranch






Afterwards we headed back back to Vernal to top off my tank before starting on our way back home. On our way back, we did stop at Fantasy Canyon, but I still need to go through those photos, so you'll have to wait a little longer for the rest of this trip report!

Nice trip report. I grew up there and really enjoyed the photo's so far and can't wait till you post the fantasy canyon one's for everyone. I am guessing that you didn't make it into the utah side of the monument much? When also you going to do the Red mountain trail just outside of vernal?

seven said:

I am guessing that you didn't make it into the utah side of the monument much? When also you going to do the Red mountain trail just outside of vernal?

Click to expand...

Not enough time to do everything in one weekend. I'll be making plenty of trips back that way when I can.

Sunday, October 25, 2009



After leaving Dinosaur National Monument and a quick stop in Vernal we headed south on our way home. However, we did have one more stopped planned at Fantasy Canyon along the way. This was a cool area, however we ended up getting there at a bad time.....most of the photos I took were shooting into the sun, so they didn;t turn out as well as I would have liked. We will have to head back another time to get some better shots. Here's some of the better ones I got....

View into the main canyon from above


Stairway up

Amanda took these last few.









After leaving Fantasy Canyon we headed east to Bonanza, UT where we turned south and made our way home through the Book Cliffs and staying off the pavement. We made a quick stop at the old townsite of Dragon along the way.

Great shots Randy, petroglyphs are awesome!

Great photos! I really enjoy your trip reports.

Thanks guys!

I'm headed out west in late spring and can't wait to see some of this stuff. Its been pretty around here with the leaves changing but that ends quickly!