Road Trip 2013 - Day 5/6

We arrived in Vernal, Utah late that night and crashed, but woke up the next morning ready to see some dinosaurs!

(Side note:  Ironically, several weeks back, Elisan and I were working on her scrapbook and I showed her the book that my mom put together for me.  In it, I found this... a picture of my brother, mother and me in front of the Dinosaur National Monument entrance.  So, of course, I had to recreate the picture with my two girls.  I believe I was 4 in this picture.)

I've never been one to be interested in dinosaurs.  The whole mystery behind the extinction of dinosaurs has been more than I ever wanted to wrap my brain around.  So, the Dinosaur National Monument in Utah was not my idea... BUT, I'm glad we visited.

We decided to take a 1 mile hike to the quarry site, rather than take the shuttle.  It was good to stretch our legs after the long ride from Silverton.  Along the way, there were markers indicating where fossils were in the rocks. 

The quarry building is built around basically the side of a rock where a huge pile of dinosaur bones lay waste.  According the scientists, this area was flooded (um...Noah?) and the many, many dinosaur bodies were deposited along a river bed after the water receded.  Thus, the area makes for a huge quarry of dino fossils.  

After Dinosaur National Monument, we hit the road again for Grand Teton National Park in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  Just beautiful.

We arrived at our lodge, unloaded the truck and headed out for a hike to one of the most scenic views on the Tetons.   Unfortunately, it was slightly overcast so my pictures do not do the view justice.

No bears were spotted on our hike!  Whew!

The next day, the sky was clear and the air was cold!  And we were able to get one final picture of the beautiful Tetons before we headed out to Yellowstone.