We decided to take the highway over Douglas Pass get to Vernal. It began as a great highway with a beautiful view of the mountains.

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As we got closer to the pass, the road began to narrow until it almost looked like a one lane road.

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One last hairpin turn and we were at 8,240 feet and the summit of Douglas Pass

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We were welcomed to the town of Vernal by this huge pink dinosaur.

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When we were in this area several years ago, we were not able to visit the dinosaur bone quarry as it had been deemed unstable. They have now built a new building and we were able to view the fossils up close and personal. An ancient river flowed across the plain of what is now Dinosaur National Park. A long drought killed many of the dinosaurs and their bones laid in the dry river bed. When extensive rains returned, it drowned many other dinosaurs and floods swept the carcasses downstream along the river bottom. As the flood waters receded, the bones dropped to the river bottom and began to pile up and were covered by sand and mud. Palentologists have collected fossils from almost 400 different kinds of dinosaurs from this quarry. There are 1,500 fossilized bones remaining here from some 100 individuals.

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It was pretty impressive to be able to touch an actual dinosaur fossil!

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There was even an area where you were allowed to touch the dino fossils that were still embedded in the wall. This is definitely an area worth visiting.

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