Dinosaur Ridge

This morning we decided to go over to Dinosaur Ridge before my mom had to fly home. We got there a bit before 9:00 and found out that their website information was not up to date. You are no longer allowed to drive your own car up the road to look at the fossils and tracks. You either have to hike or take a tour bus with a guide. Since we hadn't planned on hiking for 2 hours we decided to take the tour. I'm glad we did because the kids wouldn't have liked hiking up the ridge, down the back side, then back to the visitor center. We were able to see many dinosaur fossils and footprints. The kids liked seeing the different tracks. The tour lasted about 45 minutes, which was perfect for little kids. The weather wasn't too hot either. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and was able to point out all the different fossils in the rock layers, and explained how the dinosaurs traveled. We were even able to see baby dino tracks. It was a very neat experience.

Playing on the Stegasaurus statues outside the visitor center.


What is Colorado's state fossil? The Stegasaurus.


Digging for dinosaur bones.


Grandma Dub--we love you!


Drew's happy because he could crawl around for a bit.


One of the dinosaur fossils (the dark brown area right in the middle). I couldn't tell what parts of the dinosaur the fossils were, but they were cool to see. Our guide was able to tell us what parts they most likely were.


Dinosaur footprints, from the bottom. This used to be a muddy/swampy area. The big bulge on the right (above the post) is the fossilized track of an adult brontosaurus. They can tell it's a footprint because you can see how the layers were squished down when the dinosaur stepped. Just behind these tracks were some tracks that weren't very deep. They were the baby tracks. There were even tracks from "teenage" dinosaurs. It was cool to see the tracks from the different family members.


Dinosaur tracks. These were from an Iguanadon I believe. It was interesting because the tracks above Erik were made by an adult. The little marks in between the footprints were made by the dinosaur's "hand" as it walked. It leaned forward and had to use its "hands" for balance. The footprint to the left of Erik was made by a smaller Iguanadon. There aren't any balance marks because the smaller ones were able to walk upright, on their back legs.


There were also tracks made by a bird-like dinosaur. You can see one of the tracks near the middle of the picture, between two Iguanadon tracks. There is another one near the right side, just under the crack.


Climbing where the dinosaurs once walked. This ground used to be flat, but there is a fault at the bottom of the hill, which, over time, has caused the land to be pushed up to a 45 degree angle.


An Iguanadon track.


Erik with the Iguanadon tracks. Only a small portion of the hill has been excavated. They are hoping to be able to excavate more to the right of this picture, which would be closer to where the river once was. You can see a few footprints closer to the old riverbank, but most are still uncovered.


Sitting on a Stegasaurus tail.


Drew was so tired he fell asleep less than 5 minutes after we were back in the car.

After leaving Dinosaur Ridge, we had to take mom to the airport. We were sad to see her go, but we had fun while she was here. We miss you already mom! Can't wait to see you again.... hopefully with dad. :) Thanks for all the fun. We love you!