At the end of July, I took the kids to Vernal to visit Justin while he’s working up at Dinosaur National Monument. It was hot there, but we had a great time.
First stop was Justin’s work trailer, where we ate lunch and the kids played around in Dad’s work stuff.
Naturally, the next stop was the gift shop where all the kids reveled in all things dinosaurs. Austin even coined his own new word for dino, “Doane.”
Austin and Emma were happy to stand in front of the dino below, but we had to force Tyson to. As Justin and Austin were walking back to the truck, Austin said, “Bye-bye, Doane.”
We decided to travel along the Cub Creek Trail. First stop was Green River. Austin had fallen asleep by this point, so Justin took the kids while I waited with the sleepy guy. Look how precious and innocent he is sleeping with his hand around his new Doane.
Lest there be any doubt that Emma really is my daughter, she slipped and fell in the mud. Naturally, Tyson thought it was funny and laughed at her, which made her cry that much more.
Next was the Tour of the Tilted Rocks, “an auto tour of Cub Creek Road.” It’s a 13-mile tour by car. You can purchase an inexpensive guidebook to follow along with the point of interest. There are many visible pictographs (paintings) and petroglyphs (sketched or carved drawings) that can be seen. They were created apx 1000 years ago by the Fremont Culture.
There had been a pretty bad flash flood earlier that week (see my posting on Justin’s weird weather pictures), so some of the trails were damaged and we couldn’t get too close, but we were able to see some.
At the end of the road is the Josie Bassett homestead. She was a local rancher who established a home there in 1914. She independently provided for herself. She raised and butchered her own meat and grew her own fruits and vegetables. She also built her not only her own home, but a series of homes there. She died at the age of 90 after complications from a hip injury she suffered in her isolated home.
We toured one of the remaining cabins that she had built, as well as walked the grounds and saw an old chicken coop. While her life was one of isolation, it did not lack for grandiose beauty. It is so beautiful. I can see why she chose there, even 100 years ago when it was more isolated than now.
We all agree that Josie must have been rather short, since even I had to watch my head. Below are some pictures from the old chicken coop.
On the way back, we stopped to take pictures of “Turtle Rock” or “Skull Rock,” as it has been called. Pretty cool. I really did look like a turtle sitting atop a pile of skulls. The “skulls” are a little hard to tell from the pictures, but they did look like skulls.
Later that day, Justin took Tyson and Emma hiking. Mom and Austin stayed back at Dad’s townhouse and played with “Doanes.” The first hike they took was the Fossil Discovery Trail. The pictures below are from that hike. Justin didn’t take any pictures from the second hike because, “The kids were too tired and whiney.” I told him I was going to quote him on that!
Finally, on their way back to town, they stopped at the huge pink dinosaur, Dinah, so Emma could take her picture there. There was no convincing Tyson to take his picture in front of a pink dino.
That, my friends, was day one. More to come. Sorry for the long post and mass pictures, but I did actually edit them down, but couldn’t leave any more out!
