Dinosaur National Monument, Utah

July 10th

We drove most of the day. Our plan was to get into Colorado, and then visit the Dinosaur National Monument the next day, but we saw signs for the Visitor Center, so we drove in to check it out. It turned out to also be the entrance to Dinosaur National Monument. Lucky for us, Mia has a National Parks pass, so it was free for us to enter. The ranger at the entrance told us that there were still first come first serve sites available at the Green River Campground inside the park. We ended up staying for the night. We will check out the sites in the park tomorrow morning.

July 11th

Dinosaur National Monument is pretty amazing. There is the “quarry”, where you can see hundreds of dinosaur fossils partially unearthed, beautiful scenery with strange rock formations, hiking trails, and Petroglyphs carved in the canyon walls. This has to be one of the most underrated National Parks. We spent all morning visiting some of the sites on the Utah side of the park. At noon we left for Colorado. When we got to Steamboat Springs, the smoke had returned. I was concerned we were going to be spending the night breathing smoke. As we turned north toward Steamboat Lake, we could see the fire on a mountain ridge to the East. I check with the forest service, and their website said that they had it under control. When we got to Steamboat Lake State Park, there was no smoke, it was all being blown to the east. This state park is gorgeous. It’s like being in an alpine meadow, there are wildflowers growing everywhere. Our friends, Ron and Ashley showed up about 15 minutes after we did. They have their new family member with them, Aspen, an 8-week-old Portuguese Waterdog.