Red Gulch Track site | Dinosaurs4Dinner

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Dinosaurs After Dinner. Finishing up at Dirty Annie’s, we hit the road to our next camp for the night when a sign catches my eye -“Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite”

Sign

WHAT!!!! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!!

Am I reading that correctly?!!

I immediately (not sure legally) make a U-Turn in the middle of the street. “What’s wrong? Where are we going?” I hear from my peanut gallery in the back.

“Dinosaurs, we are going to see Dinosaurs!! (err.. their tracks anyway)!!! Do you guys want to go?!?”

“No, that’s ok.”

Wait…What!??!? Now I think my hearing is going…ARE YOU GUYS CRAZY?!!

I press on the gas a little harder and say “Guys, this is FOR REAL!”

“Very Funny Mom!” Is my reply this time

I stop the car, tell them to put their Ipads away – there is no App for what we are about to see- Real Life Dinosaur tracks from Real dinosaurs that really lived! Not like the fake one we saw at Wall Drug. It finally sunk in, they are excited -not as excited as I am though! I LOVE Dinosaurs and this unexpected stop is so unbelievably thrilling and not to mention perfect for my blog!

After driving for about a mile the dirt road starts to become less and less of an actual road. The tires are spiting up dirt from every which way and the sun is starting it’s decent, shining right into my eyes. I am mentally trying to figure out how many feet are in a mile and I am pretty sure it is more than the 750 the sign stated. Continuing on another couple miles we still don’t see anything, and I mean absolutely nothing, every direction I look for as far as I can see, is dirt, not another living soul for miles. This is when I also realize I no longer have any bars on my phone, images of every survivor desert movie start racing through my head until I am interrupted by Aidan, “Mom, I really don’t think this is a good idea.” Followed up with “I think this is a BAD idea mom, a BAD idea.” I don’t say anything because I am starting to feel the same way but of course I keep going because these are REAL Dino Tracks!! Approximately 5 miles later we find it!Congratulations, I am now alone in the middle of the desert, with 4 boys -I have never been more excited or scared at the same time. Just as I turn the car off Scott calls, at least I have cell service again. I tell him what we are doing and also tell him if he doesn’t hear back from me within the hour he needs to send out a search party for us.

This is for real, not a souvenir.

We get out and start walking along the plank to the actual site. The boys immediately notice the ‘Warning Rattlesnake Signs’ posted everywhere and ask it that’s ‘For Real.’ Yes, I say we are not in Illinois anymore so there are rattlesnakes here, stay on the path….WHAY!! as I notice Aidan in his flip flops completely off of the path walking around in the dirt. Now I am glad no one is around because I freak out and yell at him to stay on the path that this is serious.

That is when Connor chimes in, “It’s ok mom, if you are about to be attacked by a rattlesnake you lift your foot in front of you as if you are about to march and kick him in the face.”….excuse me? “Yeah, we learned that at the Reptile Gardens” I have to say I was a little impressed.

Running with the Dinosaurs

After leaving, I did a little research and found out this site is an assemblage of 165 million year old fossil dinosaur footprints from the middle Jurassic period. Discovered in 1997, on public land by Erik Kvale, a research geologist, while on vacation with his family. They say a site like this is very rare in the world.

My 4 Dinosuars

The boys ended up loving it but were a little disappointed we didn’t see any Rattlesnakes, I didn’t feel the same way about this…who am I kidding – that would have been the icing on the cake!