Vernal Trip Part 2

Friday morning (June 19th) we headed out to the Dinosaur National Monument. We started out by heading to the visitor's center and catching a ride on the shuttle to the Dinosaur Quarry. We had fun looking at all the dinosaur bones there and learning about them. Visitors were even permitted to touch the partially uncovered fossilized bones in the rock at the bottom.

 

The most complete sauropod skeleton ever found

Chicken Coop

After visiting the quarry it was time for lunch, and after lunch we went hiking. First we hiked Hog Canyon, which got its name from the fact that Josie Basset Morris used the canyon as a natural corral for her pigs. Josie is known for her love affairs with Butch Cassidy and his Wild Gang, and she had five different husbands - four of which she divorced and one of which died. She moved to cub creek in 1913 at age 40 and built a cabin there herself. Later she built a new cabin with help from her son. We saw her cabin and chicken coop near the trailhead. She lived there homesteading for 50 years, chopping wood, cooking, caring for livestock, tending an orchard, hunting, sewing her own clothing, bootlegging, making her own soap, growing a vegetable garden, and entertaining guests at her cabin (which was really nice by homesteading standards). She remained living on her ranch until she passed away at the age of 90.

Here we are in front of Josie's Cabin

 

Heading into Hog Canyon

After the trail in the canyon ended, some of us continued climbing up the rocks further into the canyon.

After returning from Hog Canyon, we went up the Box Canyon Trial, which was an especially short hike.

Once again, some of us kept climbing up past where the trail stopped.

After hiking, we returned to our hotel for a swim. We were surprised to find the indoor pool was extremely cold. It didn't feel a great deal warmer than the river we rafted the day before, so we didn't last long in the pool. Furthermore, the tile surrounding the pool was extremely slick. It was slick even when it was not wet, and it was crazy slippery when it was wet. Even while being careful, both Austin and my aunt slipped and fell on the tile, and my dad almost fell. We still had some fun though, and the hot tub felt nice.

After our swim, we went to dinner and got some ice cream for dessert. Then we played some games before going to bed. Saturday morning we stopped by one of Vernal's large funny dinosaurs sculptures for a picture.

And the hotel even gave Austin a Dinosaur Hunting Permit before we left.

Then we concluded our vacation with a trip out to Fantasy Canyon.

Aunt Rosanne and Austin next to the Coyote

This little canyon was full of really crazy intricate rock forms that were perfect exercising one's imagination to find all sorts of shapes and objects hidden among them. Some of the rocks had been given names. We couldn't find a lot of them, but there were other forms we found pretty readily.

The Witch

The Gargoyle (that looked to us like a triceratops)

While interesting, I don't think this is a place we will be going back to since it was also out in the middle of nowhere. It was a short .6 mile hike that took nearly an hour to get to.