travel marker series ii

Dinosaur Monument is the second in the Travel Marker Series. If you clicky-click on the image, you'll see a fold down the middle; This is from a trip across the US in an envelope, from a friend* who was kind enough to think of me on a cross-country bicycle trip.

From the National Park Service web site:

Dinosaur National Monument is located in both Colorado and Utah. Each state provides a chance to visit very distinctive areas of the monument. The east side of the monument located in Colorado provides access to deep canyons along the Green and Yampa rivers. Dramatic views are available along the Harpers Corner Road. The west side of the monument located in Utah features the world-famous dinosaur quarry where visitors can see over 1,500 fossils still embedded in the cliff face.

Sounds pretty cool, right? Check this out, from the reverse of the bookmark.

Dinosaur National Monument is the legacy of rivers, past and present. Here, preserved in the sands of an ancient river, is a time capsule from the world of dinosaurs. The dinosaur quarry discovered here by Earl Douglas in 1909 has yielded the bones of 10 species of "terrible lizards", including Apatosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Allosaurus -- the most fearsome meat-eating dinosaur for its time.

The Quarry Visitor Center is where you can stop in, park, and plan out your trip. Shuttle buses take folks from here to the Quarry Exhibit Hall. You say you'd like or bike in? Here you go:

Coordinates for the Quarry Visitor Center (Utah side of monument)
Latitude:N 40° 26' 17.0277"
Longitude:W 109° 18' 25.6701"

The Quarry Exhibit Hall is where you can find dino bones, and other paleontological goodies. Out in the park, there are canyons, rivers, ancient petroglyphs and pictographs,† boating, hiking, and folded layers of the earth's strata!

Dudes, lets go!

* Thanks to Alyson!
† Petroglyphs are images pecked into rock while pictographs are painted images. Thank you, National Park Service. Incidentally, these are old Native American artworks.