Dinos!
July 19, 2016

Destination dinosaur did not excite me nearly enough to make it a priority; however, I was fine to go along because the señor gets all funny about creatures that no longer walk the Earth.  Sure, I have marvelled at their giganto-ness as I peer upward at skulls larger than a Volkswagen bug perched atop necks stretched so far up that looking gives me a kink in my own neck.  And yes, I have had the occasion to see a fossilized footprint that is so huge it is impossible to imagine the beast that trod there.

Despite a youthful interest in the extinct beasts, visiting a dinosaur quarry just did not seem overly appealing nor exciting, but there was no denying that Chris' fascination extended to everything dinosaur, thus the decision was made to drive a long dirt road to the Cleveland-Lloyd quarry.

One wonders just why the dinos could not have succumbed in a bit more convenient location, but then one remembers their tiny brains that did not consider such.

As in all things Wuehrmann, the journey was as fascinating as the destination, or at least carried substantial interest.  For one thing, the drive out through bleak other-worldly type landscape set the stage for being at the place where so many ancient creatures lived and died.

The Cleveland-Lloyd visitors center was well-done and interesting . . .

 . . . but the real fascination was seeing where the excavation was actually in progress and how it proceeds.  There are buildings placed right over where they dig, allowing visitors to view the activities.

Additionally, interpretative trails wind through the area; a written guide pamphlet explains the type of places where the bones are located and why plus much more.  There are even actual dinosaur bone fragments on the ground surface and still embedded in the rock.  We very much enjoyed hiking and learning.

Excavations formally began there in the 1920s.  The discoveries have uncovered a highly atypical proportion of carnivorous dinos, mainly allosaurus, which amount to 75% of the denizens as opposed to the norm of 10 or 15% in other places.

Why this place is so unusual is a matter of conjecture and may never be known, but it does have the highest concentration of dinosaur bones found anywhere in the world.

Not the liveliest of landscapes, nevertheless, all is not rock and bone.

Away from the quarry a bit, we hiked to this tank that had overfilled from the previous day's rain and spotted a lone pronghorn heading over the hills after having had his fill.  Later, we saw a small bunch of the animals, made me feel like I was back home in Chino Valley.

San Rafael Swell, the Wedge . . .

From our perch at the Huntington Lake State Park, we are near an intriguing geologic feature called the San Rafael Swell, an anticline of many square miles.  It consists of rock that was forced upward millions of years ago and that has been eroded by water and wind into convolutions of canyons of every stripe and shape.

From our explorations out into the country, we could easily keep ourselves occupied hiking and discovering its secrets for multiple lifetimes.

Perhaps the primary formation in the area is the Wedge.  What a bizarre name for such an amazing geologic beauty!  Also known as the little Grand Canyon, we had to check it out.  I was prepared for a rather disappointing wanna-be sight, but quickly jettisoned that preconceived notion.

The Wedge is not the Grand Canyon; however, it easily holds its own as far as grandeur.  We hiked along the rim and were enthralled with the beauty.  We were especially fortunate that scudding storm clouds sent their shadows racing across the colorful cliffs, transforming the view ceaselessly.

 

 

 

 

Those same clouds later convinced us to make a rapid exit out of the back country and dumped a pounding deluge onto us that completely obscured our view of the road.  Fortunately, we departed in time to avoid any flash flooding.

The San Rafael River flows through the Wedge and is accessible by car via a long, but excellent dirt road.  Although too low a flow while we were there, the San Rafael is evidently popular at times for long floats via tubes and kayaks.

A suspension bridge was the first automobile route over the river in the canyon.  It was constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

Scenery at the bottom of the Wedge is as awesome as from the rim.

Our view from inside a cave that has been camped in for millenia.

 The Spanish  Trail . . .

A good bit of the dirt road we drove follows the route of the old Spanish Trail.

Dino guts . . .

Whilst we were wandering off across the countryside searching for a trace of the old Spanish Trail, I began to notice an occasional small rock that stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb.  In that area, the ground cover was extremely monotonous - dry clay-like soil scattered with black nobbly rocks - except, that is, for the various colored oddities.

They seemed to be significant for some reason and so I began to collect a few of them.  Upon arriving back in the land of Google, Chris' research revealed the stones' secret.  Astonishingly, they are gastroliths: rocks from the gizzards of dinosaurs!

In the same way that birds utilize gravel to internally grind their food for digestion, so did dinosaurs, except that, of course, they used larger stones for the same purpose.

Bizarre enough to have picked up these gastroliths used by dinosaurs millions of years ago, the one at the top of the photo was later, but surely still prehistorically fashioned into a stone tool, as evidenced by the fine serrated edge.

This three-toed dinosaur track was a short hike away from the road.

The Buckhorn Panel . . .

Near the San Rafael River in Buckhorn Draw is a notable Barrier Canyon culture rock art panel.  Unfortunately, we were there in the middle of the day, not an optimum time for photographs, but we did get some fair-to-middling shots of it.

The Wilberg Mine disaster . . .

We had read about the disastrous Wilberg Mine fire of 1984 that trapped and killed 27 coal miners and learned that it is near to our campsite.  We not only found ourselves in the midst of coal mining country, but conversation with our RV neighbor, Dane, revealed that he had worked in the Wilberg Mine with some of the men lost there.

Dane & Tera are locals who brought their fifth-wheel out to the lake for a change of scenery even as they continue to work.  We thoroughly enjoyed evenings with them as they joined us while Chris played the keyboard; they even shared Tera's freshly made Rice Krispies treats!

Dane no longer works in the mines, but offered lots of interesting information about his underground experiences.

This memorial to miners is located at The Museum of the San Rafael Swell in Castle Dale.

The so-called Morrison-Knudsen tunnels are along the route into the Wedge.  Now sealed off with metal grating, the extensive blasted tunnels were created in 1947 as a top-secret government endeavor to . . . well, it was top-secret, so no one knows just exactly what was planned.  Whatever it was, it was never implemented.

This was a lovely little succulent plant I noticed on a hike.

One of the endless stream of coal-hauling trucks that ply the highways hereabouts.

Not a very birdy area, but this horned lark sat still for his photo.  The more exciting news was that we got another life bird - a prairie falcon that flew from his perch on a power pole for his identification.