By Eli
Dinosaur National Monument was an awesome experience, I loved it. The first evening, we visited the Dinosaur Quarry. In 1909 Earl Douglass discovered several fossilized vertebrae coming out of a sandstone ridge. He had discovered a Dinosaur “Log Jam”, where many dinosaurs died together in a riverbed, and were preserved. It is one of the densest collections of large dinosaur fossils in the US. We saw all different dinosaur bones and got to touch them and even saw a Allosaurus skull! Most of the bones found there have been transported to world renowned museums which is super cool. Later, we walked along the Fossil Discovery trail where we found clam fossils, dinosaur fossils, and fossilized fish scales. It was a really neat experience. That evening we set up camp at the Green River Campground, and skipped rocks on the river next to our campsite.
The next day we went river rafting on the Green River. We met up with the OARS white water rafting about 45 minutes away from our campsite in Vernal, UT. We were met with a cheerful and wonderful staff that helped us the entire day. They bussed us up river to Rainbow Park Campground. Along the way, we stopped at the McKee Springs Petroglyphs. They were pretty cool, but at some point in the last 200 years, somebody used these petroglyphs for target practice. Now, both the petroglyphs and their bullet holes are protected by the NPS.
At the start of our rafting trip, we are greeted by a huge beautiful canyon with many different types of rocks. It was gorgeous. We came to our first rapid and get rocked around. It felt like we raced down the river with tremendous speed! We rowed as fast as we could and got knocked around, all the while me and my dad had smiles on our face. We stopped for lunch and we really got to experience the full beauty of the canyon and split mountain. We could see about 10 bighorn sheep on the canyon walls above our lunch spot. One of the best things about lunch was that I got to patrol the shore with a water gun, and blast my Dad with water. After we had a delicious lunch that the guide prepared for us and some dairy free cookies, we were on our way.
We passed through more exciting rapids. When the river was calm, we floated beside the boat down river. It was super fun to be pushed along by the current and look up at the towering canyon. After that, I rode through some rapids while sitting on the bow the raft. My legs were dangling over the front of the raft, and I held onto the safety line. They call this “riding the bull”. It was an experience of a lifetime! Overall the experience at Dinosaur National Monument was phenomenal and amazing.
Totally awesome! We would like to visit there at some point!