On Monday morning, we drove north from Richfield, heading towards the curiously named town of Vernal, UT. Vernal is the closest town to the turning point of our road trip, the town of Dinosaur, Colorado, and it's a good place to stop if you're visiting the many nearby fossil quarrys and prehistoric sites.
From what we've seen so far, the landscape of Utah seems incredibly diverse - it wasn't long before the red canyons changed into lower-lying sandy hills and green scrub.
Refueling diner-style in Price, UT
The highway led us through some kind of coal processing plant, and in amongst some incredible rocky cliffsides...
... which then led us up a mountain...
... where a deer crossed the road in front of us and gracefully scaled the verge (she's the brown blur on the left of this photo).
An amazing view from almost 10 000 feet
After the mountain, we drove towards Red Fleet State Park, where we would hike out to the site of some dinosaur footprints, preserved in the Navajo Sandstone surrounding a reservoir.
Different landscape again - this time, so many greens, browns and oranges
Hitting the trail - I believe these rocks are actually petrified prehistoric sand dunes. According to the plaques on the trail, this area was once a dessert, dotted with oases where dinos would come to drink.
Following the path to the dino feets
First sight of the reservoir - anyone else who grew up in the 80s suspect this may have been the inspiration for the backdrops of The Land Before Time?!
Moonscape!
Overcome with excitement about proximity to dinos, Paul ran down the last bit of hill to the water.
200 million year old dino feet!
After our dino foot hike, we went back to Vernal for dinner. They take their local heritage seriously in this part of the world!
Utah has some pretty restrictive laws regarding the service of alcohol (for example - you can't order a drink containing more than one shot, but you can get a drink with a single shot in it and a second shot on the side, which you pour in yourself. We also found out today that as of July 1st this year, sale prices on beer (ie, happy hour) will be illegal. Sadface!), but despite that we've found the brew pubs to be pretty great. Polygamy Porter, anyone?
Another thing that has taken me by surprise in small town Utah? Great vegetarian food to go with your microbrew. Can this state get any better?!
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