{"id":1,"date":"2022-10-10T01:48:57","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T01:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skipvia.com\/southwest2022\/?p=1"},"modified":"2025-11-13T22:35:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T22:35:14","slug":"hello-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/southwest2022\/observation\/hello-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinosaur National Monument"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dinosaur National Monument has been on my bucket list from the Instant that I learned about it many years ago. Now it goes right back on it. I need to spend a LOT more time there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The main attraction at DNM is the quarry. In the very early 1900s, dinosaur bones were discovered in the Morrison formation, approximately 140 million years old. The discovery was monumental, no pun intended, as it included hundreds of nearly complete skeletons of camarasaurs, allosaurs, stegasaurs, and other large dinosaurs that roamed the Green River and environs\u2014all piled up together in one place due to ancient floods. A large excavation began. By the 1920s, after hundreds of tons of fossils had been removed from the excavation, scientists realized that the site needed to be preserved rather that completely dismantled. The \u201cwall of bones\u201d that we can see today has over 400 individual specimens. It\u2019s assumed that there are many times more behind and underneath the part of the wall that is visible. To a dinosaur person, this is as good as it gets, except for the possibility of traveling back in time and seeing where they came from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The monument lands are exceptionally beautiful as well, featuring a number of petroglyph sites from the Fremont people, vast sculpted sandstone formations, and many opportunities for hiking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The building covering the wall of bones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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About half of the wall of bones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Mary (she\u2019s the one in blue) with a cast of one of the fossils that was removed from the wall in the early 1900s\u2014a juvenile camarasaur that is the most complete skeleton of a long-necked dinosaur ever found. Before this was discovered, only fragments of any long-necked dino had been found.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One of the most complete allosaur fossils (cast) ever found.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A detail from the wall of bones. Camarasaur thighs, some ribs\u2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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One of many petroglyphs from the Fremont people found in the monument. This represents the earliest known appearance of bighorn sheep in the Green River valley.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Got a little hiking in. This is Box Canyon near the Josie Morris cabin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A couple of images from the drive between Vernal UT and <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And an unnamed \u201dgoblin\u201d formation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dinosaur National Monument has been on my bucket list from the Instant that I learned about it many years ago. Now it goes right back on it. I need to spend a LOT more time there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-observation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/southwest2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/southwest2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/southwest2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/southwest2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/southwest2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/southwest2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":351,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/southwest2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1\/revisions\/351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/southwest2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/southwest2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skipvia.com\/southwest2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}