Dinosaur Monument

We had a leisurely morning getting ready to leave the campground. I’m still trying to figure out how to run everything in here. The fridge only works part of the time so we’re not carrying anything too perishable, but the toilet operation seems to be working well (I’ll try dumping that tomorrow). The water in the sink is another story. There are so many air bubbles in the lines and they don’t ever seem to get out. The boys are scared to brush their teeth because it sputters and squirts so bad. Then, while I washed some dishes this morning the water would burst into the mugs and then splash out with so much force it was soaking the boys at the table. Something to get looked at someday I guess.

We made it into Dinosaur National Monument around 1030. I thought it was very impressive and was amazed at the process of uncovering the bones. The visitor center is actually built over a portion of the rock cliff where they have found tons of bones so you can see many still in their original places. I don’t think it quite lived up to the boys’ expectations. They liked the bones but were disappointed they didn’t get to go look for and dig up their own fossils. Throughout our whole visit we had to have several reminders on proper national park etiquette – no touching unless it says you can, no climbing and no taking anything.

After looking at the fossils we wanted to go on a small hike so the ranger sent us farther into the park to look at an old homestead and then hike into a box canyon. As we were driving there the road continued to narrow until it became a one lane dirt road. I was obviously concerned considering the size of our vehicle, but could do nothing except go straight since there was absolutely no place to turn around. Thankfully, we got to the end of the road and there was a huge turnaround area with picnic tables and bathrooms. The boys had a lot of fun hiking into the box canyon and hearing the great echo. They also discovered sandstone and loved throwing the rocks against the cliff walls and watching them shatter. I think they felt a bit like Superman breaking rocks into bits. It was gorgeous in there. Where we were hiking all the cliff walls were white sandstone but if you looked out across the valley the cliffs on the other side were a bright red rock.

We got back on the road and headed out on a little highway to wind our way to I-70 and head over the Rockies there. The road was very skinny with no shoulder and nothing out there, but there were constantly huge tanker trucks going both directions carrying flammable liquids. I couldn’t understand what they would be doing out there until we came to a large, open part of the high desert and saw a big factory and Chevron signs on every cross road. I’m not sure what they are doing, but they’re sure busy and the tankers are very fast. We poked along through there as it was fairly warm and the rv tended to want to start overheating at anything over 37 mph (it’s going to be a long haul through AZ).

We made it to I-70 and hit Glenwood Springs around 1830. I felt like I was headed home in a way. All my memories from skiing with the AF came back as we headed into the Rockies and saw signs for the ski resorts. We stopped in Glenwood and swam in the hot springs pools for an hour, then went 2 more minutes down the freeway to No Name, CO and pulled into a campground for the night. We sat down to a dinner of tomato soup and granola bars at 2045 before journaling and climbing into bed around 2200.