Dinosaur Land, Vernal Utah

One of my favorite trips as a child was Dinosaur Land.  I remember going to this awesome park / museum or something that had life size dinosaurs. I remember watching people dig bones out of the wall.  I think the reason I cherish my memories of Dinosaur Land so much is I just mostly remember running around and having fun with my brothers. I like to go places that give my children space to run and I don't have to constantly be telling them to stop and don't touch. I think this is why I liked dinosaur land as a child. I always wonder how much of my memories are factual and how much are made up.  I was excited to go to take my kids to see my memories from my childhood, and to see if any of my memories were accurate.  I was discussing our planned trip with a friend of mine who grew up in Vernal, and she warned me that my museum/park was no longer they had built a new one, and it was totally different.  She also told me they had upgraded the visitor center in Dinosaur Land National Monment so I was prepared to be very disappointed.

We got to Vernal  and had lunch at park.

Ashley Valley Park if you drive up 500 W, it turns into 500 N and it is on this road.  It was a great park to play at for a while after a long drive.

After lunch we headed over to the new museum. . . the one I was prepared to be horribly disappointed at.   I was not disappointed at all,  the kids had great fun exploring  the exhibits.

And all the dinosaurs I remembered from my childhood were relocated to the new museum.  I was so excited! and some new ones like the Utah Raptor that has been discovered since I  little.

 

and my favorite wooly mammoth

 

 

Also in town is the temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

 

We like to visit these anytime there is one around for visiting.

 

then we were off to the McConkie Ranch Petroglyphs.  These are on private property, there is a booth with a donation box that you can give a suggested donation of $5, or more if you would like. We loved these.  From the center of downtown Vernal (Hwy 191 and Main street), head west to 500 West, turn north (right) and head out on the Maeser Hwy (121) to 3500 West.  Drive on this road it turns to  Dry Fork Canyon Road. Watch for the McConkie Ranch turn off.

 By the donation booth there is one route,  it looked like it  went up and to the right and ended,  I was disappointed with all that was there. Luckily there we a couple people that had previously been there and they were going off in another direction.  this is a loop trail.  it goes along the wall of the cliffs, and there are some very impressive petroglyphs along it,  so if you feel disappointed keep walking along the wall, find the other trail. it is well worth it.

 

We were about to head home, when we realized that there was another trail that hikes through the cow pastures just south of the parking lot,  it heads east through the cow pastures and back up towards the cliffs.  stay on the trail by the clifs to see some other great petroglyphs.

 

Bring some binoculars, or your phone and zoom inn so you can see the 3 kings panel way up high.

 

The next day we went to Dinosaur Land National Monument, just the Utah side.

 

 

 We stopped at the visitor center and took the ride up to the quarry.

And then we walked back down to the visitor center on the Fossil Discovery Trail.

And Discovered some fossils. I loved that the kids could touch them, that there was nothing that said to not touch.

 Then we took the Auto Tour of the Utah Side of Dinosaur National Monument. We Stopped at Swelter Shelter Petroglyphs, a 100 yard jaunt.

 

and then we stopped at placer point.  We drove down the turn off, and there was a little path down to the lake.  It was a rocky shore,  but that didn't stop the kids from enjoying the water.

 

up stream I could see sand.  When we went back to the car I could see a trail through the weeds and tall grass.  I followed it and found a private sandy beach. It was beautiful,  and no one else was around. the kids were very disappointed we didn't bring our swim suits.

 We stayed a long time, and built sand castles.  next time we will bring our swim suits.  It was calm and beautiful.

  We then went down to Josie's Ranch.  It was really cool and for some reason I didn't take any pictures of it, there is a little log cabin that Josie built by herself, you can go in the different rooms of the dilapidated cabin, I loved that it wasn't roped off, that my kids could spend time imagining and playing "house" in the cabin, and trying to decide what room was the bedroom, kitchen etc. You can see her chicken coop,  and they have a map of where her garden was, and well, and orchard, and then she kept her cattle in the box canyon  so she used the canyons as fences and only had a fence at the opening of the canyon to keep her cattle in. We enjoyed the hikes through the canyons. My husband decided he wanted to purchase this property so we can live there.  if only in our dreams

then we stopped at the lizard petroglyphs on the way back.  lots and lots and lots of lizards. no one knows why there are so many lizards on this wall.

 

Once again a great place to take the family. I am grateful for the opportunity to spend time with my family. Develop memories with them.  And also to teach them that they can do hard things like hiking up the side of a mountain to discover petroglyphs. This quick family jaunt proved to be well worth our time.