A Very Special Spot: Dinosaur National Monument

Heading east from Coalville, our next stop in Utah was Dinosaur National Monument, near Jensen.  There are several entrances and sections of this 210,000+ acre park that spans part of eastern Utah and western Colorado, so we actually saw just a fraction of it, but we think we saw the best part -- and the only part where you can see actual dinosaur bones!

Here's a snip from Google Maps showing Dinosaur National Monument (DNM) in green.  The dotted line is the Utah/Colorado border.

Utah to the left, Colorado to the right, Dinosaur National Monument in green

Before arriving at DNM, the drive was ridiculously beautiful.  Of course it was; this is Utah!

Seems like every town along the way was spit-shined neat as a pin and decorated for the benefit of drivers passing through.  I loved seeing all the baskets and pots positively dripping with summer flowers in bright hues.

Here's the Quarry Visitor's Center at the Utah entrance to DNM, not to be confused with the Canyon Visitor's Center in Dinosaur, Colorado.  We didn't stop in on entering the park as we wanted to nab a good campsite in Green River Campground, but we rode our bikes here numerous times during our stay.

And we did get a good campsite!  Only one of the three loops in the campground (the B loop) takes reservations, so we got there as early as we could manage and nabbed a pull-through site in the A loop under beautiful cottonwood trees with a private "back yard" and amazing view of Split Mountain.  We paid just $9/night with Barry's Senior Pass for our site.

Here's a birds-eye view of the campground.  Loop A is to the left.  It has the most sunshine; loops B and C are more shaded.

This is a rustic campground with no hookups, showers, dump station, or water fill for RVs; however, there are bathrooms with flush toilets and drinking water spigots. Recreation opportunities abound (and we took full advantage of them, of course).  There is a hiking trail, the River Trail, accessible right from the A loop, other hiking trails a bit farther away, great road cycling, and some gravel riding as well.  Mountain bikes are not allowed on the hiking trails.

And of course, there are dinosaur bones to see!  But we saved that until the end of our time in the park.  We'll have a few more posts showing what we did here, as we stayed busy soaking up the beauty and history of this special park. 

Cottonwood Trees against a backdrop of brilliant blue Utah sky