Dinosaur National Monument

Sunday after going to church in Colorado Springs, we headed back home to Utah.  When we drove to Colorado we took the route through Wyoming.  On our way back, we took the route through the mountains of Colorado.  

We wanted to take this scenic route because of it's beauty and because we wanted to go through the Eisenhower Tunnel.  The CDOT website says that this tunnel is the highest vehicular tunnel in the world at 11, 155 feet!  Pretty incredible!  It's also a long tunnel.

I remember going through it on one occasion as a teenager.  It was sunny and beautiful on the east side and when we exited on the west side, it was snowing!  Crazy mountain weather!

Sunday night we stayed in Craig, Colorado.  Monday morning we headed into Utah.

The main reason why we took this route was so we could go to Dinosaur National Monument.  We wanted to show Glenn all the cool dinosaur bones they have found in this part of the country.

We took a little tram over to the Quarry Exhibit Site

This building has put a roof over the excavation of hundreds and hundreds of dinosaur bones found here.  I tried to take a picture from an angle so you can tell what it looks like.  We could see them from two levels--this is from the upper level.

It was amazing to see them!  Glenn though it was pretty awesome that they had some that we could touch too!

They had these on display also inside.

The terrain in this part of the state was so interesting.  Glenn thought some of the ridges looked like the spikes on the back of a stegosaurus, 

The monument was right near the town of Jensen, Utah.  I tried to get a picture of the city sign as we came into town, but missed it.  So I had to get one from the other side, which I thought was cool because it showed where we had come from--Denver, through Dinosaur and Jensen.

Along that route we drove through a city called Vernal.  They have an LDS Temple there.  I had never been there before and wanted a picture of it.  It was pretty easy to find because of the Angel Moroni statue on top.

As we came through the mountain canyons of Utah into the Salt Lake Valley we noticed that some of the leaves on the trees were changing color already.  I do miss seeing the mountains when they change color.  Too bad Texas doesn't have mountains...

And one last picture of Glenn in the car.  He did so well on the trip.  He is a great traveler.  He loves listening to stories and it's fun to find things that will be fun and exciting for him.