Price/Castle Country

Price again had a wonderful Visitor Center and also a fabulous Prehistoric Museum. By the entry was a sculpture of two fighting allosaurus dinos. We had decided to substitute this drive for the original plan of going to Dinosaur NM and Fossil Buttes which would have taken us on a backtrack up into Vernal and Wyoming. The museum at Price was a treasure trove of dino info specifically around the Jurassic Period with skeletons unearthed in the regions coal mines. The drive between Price and Green River is labeled the Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric -National Scenic Byway. There is a huge collection of mounted dino skeletons plus info on Ice Age Mammals and the Prehistoric Fremont Indian Culture.

Prehistoric Museum

Prehistoric Museum

Prehistoric Museum

Cleveland Lloyd Dino Quarry

Cleveland Lloyd Dino Quarry

Nearby is Cleveland Lloyd Dino Quarry, renamed as Jurassic NM. In this site 100s of allosaurus skeletons were found...the reason for such a cache still unknown. The quarry also displays fossils and dig sites. The Utahraptor, featured in Jurassic Park, was discovered here. We could have spent hours at the museum but we wanted to get out to The Wedge Overlook in the San Rafael Swell.

The Wedge Overlook

The Wedge Overlook

The Wedge Overlook

This is a deep sandstone canyon carved by the San Rafael River...known as the Little Grand Canyon." This was an area we had not appreciated before but offers fantastic scenery, hiking, rock art, slot canyons...all not mobbed with the crowds of the National Parks. On the way out of the Wedge we stopped at Buckhorn Wash where there are easily accesible petro and pictoglyphs of the Barrier Canyon style featuring tall long limbed figures with hollow eyes and heads.

Buckhorn Wash Petroglyphs

Buckhorn Wash Petroglyphs

We stayed two nights at Green River Inn where none of the cleaning crew wore masks...a little scarey! We sanitized our own room or B&B at every stop with our array of alcohol wipes and sanitizer sprays and ate in unless outdoor dining was an option. The weather was still nice enough to eat out during the day and we had picnics at outdoor sites. We sampled a local brew Polygamy Porter.The second day we spent touring Nine Mile Canyon which is billed as a outdoor rock art museum spanning 8000 years of Indian Culture from the Fremont through to Ute/Shoshone and then the Mormon settlers and Pony Express.

Photos - 15 of 23

Photos - 16 of 23

The Great Hunt Panel

There were other interesting things to explore that we just did not have time for ...Coal Mining and Railroad Museums, John Wesley Powell Museum in Green River. This area definitely will be on a return itinerary!