MY LIST

I’ve had a “list” for quite a long time. Long before it was called a bucket list. Inspired by my friend Diana King, I started one in 1983. And the first thing on the list is to see Dinosaur Footprints. I hadn’t even heard of them until a trip to Lake Powell. I saw them on a map but didn’t get to see them. So they started my list which by now is a pretty long list. As we checked out of the KOA in Cedar City, I asked about things to do in the area. And that’s how I learned that there were dino prints right there in southern Utah.
Discovered in 2000, this site, is “going to be the most important in the world for the researchers working on early Jurassic footprints.” --Gerard Gierlinski, Polish Geological Institute, Warsaw, Poland

The back story is that a retired eye doctor wanted to level his roadside property so that he could put in a 7-11 or something like that. As he bulldozed, he noticed that the sandstone was coming off in big blocks, like caked mud, which at first he sold to his neighbors for patio paving and such. Finally, he realized that there was something interesting, very interesting, on the surface of the pieces he was excavating. Why, they looked like footprints of some huge birds!

This is photo of a remarkable thing to see: The actual dinosaur footprint next to a positive cast of the print. Both slabs of stone are nearly 200 million years old. The dinosaur made the original tracks in the wet mud on the shore of a prehistoric lake, then sand blew onto the tracks, and later more mud flowed over the tracks. Then time and pressure fossilized this sandwich. In 2000 AD the positive cast block was lifted off the negative original footprint. And here they both sit, for us all to gape at. --Tom

Luckily for us, his stepson was a paleontologist at the local university who immediately identified them and today you can see thousands of these Early Jurassic period dino prints from 195-198 million years ago. The site is covered by a huge building and it costs just $7 to visit. ($10 for a year pass) I would have paid $70!

This is the original footprint of a small dinosaur, still in the ground where it was made millions of years ago!

Imagine the muddy edge of a lake. Lots of creatures of various sizes are frolicking or fighting or fishing in the mud there. Something sudden happens, they all leave and the area is covered with sand, more mud, then thirty feet of mountain over the next 190 million years. All the foot prints, tail prints, swimming traces, even raindrops are there, preserving a moment in time. Swim tracks of a dinosaur! (The positive cast)

In one area, you can actually see how a creature, about 6 feet tall at the shoulder, came down to the water, sat down in the mud, put his hands down at his sides, got up and walked to higher ground, dragging his tail. You can actually see fifteen of his steps, in a straight line.

Awesome, tears in eyes. So dinosaurs are really true. And this creature actually existed! www.dinotrax.com