In Utah’s Dinosaur Country, Tracing the Footprints of Ancient Dinosaurs – A Gold Rush for Dinosaur Enthusiasts
For many Utah residents, the image of cowboys, sheep, and magnificent canyons may come to mind, while 'dinosaurs' are actually Utah's newest world-renowned attraction. Since the late 19th century, ever since the dinosaur craze swept across Europe and then the United States, Utah has become a 'gold rush' destination for dinosaur enthusiasts.
A hundred years ago, a Carnegie excavation team discovered dinosaur fossil remains near Vernal, and a wave of archaeologists rushed to Utah to explore the ancient dinosaurs' footprints. Now, dinosaurs buried deep in this red land are constantly being discovered, and Utah can be hailed as 'Dinosaur Country' by people.
Now that you're staying home, you can still let your imagination run wild. Close your eyes, imagine, and let Utah's many dinosaur museums and fossil sites take you back to 150 million years ago; hop in an off-road vehicle, drive on the highway, and embark on a fantastic dinosaur exploration journey in Utah.
Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway is widely recognized as the best place to explore dinosaur footprints, stretching 512 miles across Utah and Colorado. This scenic highway carries traces of dinosaurs that lived millions of years ago. Driving along this highway, everyone is a brave explorer, and you can also enjoy the iconic red canyons, unique terrain, and winding streams along the way.
In this diamond-shaped national scenic road, explorers can understand the giant creatures that once lived on this land through sight and touch. You can also capture the silhouettes of Native American cultures along the way. As a destination known as 'Outdoor Paradise', world-class outdoor adventure activities in the surrounding forests and valleys are also a must.
Dinosaur National Monument spans the border between Utah and Colorado, covering more than 200,000 acres. It is one of the world's largest dinosaur parks, along with the Zigong Dinosaur Museum in China and the Alberta Provincial Dinosaur Park in Canada, all ranked among the world's top three dinosaur fields.
Along Highway 149, you can reach the Dinosaur Quarry Visitor Center, and then take a shuttle to enter the Dinosaur Quarry Exhibition Hall. A Jurassic Bone Wall built from 1500 dinosaur skeletons is immediately in sight. All the fossils are preserved in their original forms – undoubtedly, everyone will be shocked, and the door to the prehistoric era has been opened.
In the southwestern corner of the park, the Dinosaur National Center is set up, which is a modern building with glass. It is called 'Dinosaur Graveyard Exhibition Hall'. Its four walls have three glass walls, and the remaining one is a steep, sloping rock layer, inlaid with countless dinosaur skeletons, realistically showing the original burial state of the fossils, which is known as 'the world's most peculiar dinosaur bone storage place'. You can see Jurassic late major dinosaur species, such as the giant, ,,,.
Traveling west on Highway 40 to 'Dinosaur Country' Vernal, you can visit the Utah Geological and Natural History Museum. The museum was founded in 1963 and mainly exhibits natural wonders and local cultures. More than 1.2 million specimens are collected. You can reach the exhibition hall through the Vasatch Mountains' natural trails. The exhibition hall combines the visual effects of rocks, soil, plants, minerals, and shows a combination of prehistoric, geological, landform, historical and future.
The Dinosaur Gallery is the 'flagship' exhibition hall of the Utah Geological and Natural History Museum. The design is different, and according to the various dinosaur fossils of different sizes and heights, it designs a suspended walkway, forming a three-dimensional exhibition route. Unlike many traditional exhibition halls, visitors don't have to crane their necks or bend their heads to see the dinosaur specimens. Triangular dragon skulls are decorated on the walls, and the floor is designed as a glass floor, displaying the fossil of a duck-billed dragon that was excavated in Utah.
One side of the Dinosaur Gallery is a glass wall, through which you can visit the laboratory personnel's work scenes of cleaning and splicing fossils. Let the audience 'participate' in international research related to dinosaurs, which breaks the 'zoo' of museums, which is a distinctive exhibition experience of the Utah Geological and Natural History Museum.
Have you ever imagined that the land you stand on now was once covered with dinosaur footprints millions of years ago? And further back in time, here might have been a piece of land at the bottom of the sea? These traces have long since disappeared in the billions of years, but there is still a land that allows you to clearly see the traces carved into the earth by time, that is Utah's Red Fleet State Park – because this park is the best-preserved dinosaur fossil site in Utah and a natural museum that witnesses the development of nature.
Along Highway 191, about 13 miles north of Vernal, you can reach the Red Fleet State Park. The park once discovered a large number of dinosaur fossil prints, which carries a history of nearly 200 million years and attracts a batch of explorers from all over the world. There is a famous Red Fleet Dinosaur Trail in the northern part of the park, which is 1.5 miles long and crosses a forest of Douglas firs.
Along the trail, you can pass through various types of geological landscapes and feel the power of wind and sand erosion. At the end of the dinosaur trail, there is a large reservoir, where a fossil of the two-winged dragon that lived 200 million years ago is preserved. Approaching the reservoir, you can find 40 dinosaur footprints on the steep red rock wall, with lengths ranging from 3 to 17 inches. Sitting on the sloping sandstone, try to approach these imprinted traces that carry billions of years of time. For anyone interested in paleontology or natural history, this will be a precious exploration journey.
