And our third Learning Adventure of the Week found us back in time about 100 millions years, walking with the dinosaurs at Dinosaur Ridge in Morrison, just north of Red Rocks Amphitheater. It was a fun, if not scorching hot, outing.
The visitor center is OK. We didn't go in the small museum; there is a small fee and I wasn't sure how the younger ones would do, so we skipped it. But there are fun life-size dinos, other colorful dinos, a dig pit where they can play paleontologists and dig for dino bones, a gift shop with a few learning things, and some picnic areas where we had lunch.
I liked this wildlife sightings whiteboard. I have to admit, I think it would have been kinda cool to see a rattlesnake from afar, but we learned that they don't come out during the hottest part of the day (which it was), but rather later in the afternoon.
By far the greatest thing about Dinosaur Ridge is the geological and paleontological aspects. The ridge sits atop Golden Fault; Isabel got real concerned the ground was going to shake and crack open when I pointed this out. Fortunately, we never felt a thing. Of course, I pointed this out after she struck her shiny happy pose.
The road up to dinosaur ridge has been closed to public vehicles for several years, so you can either walk up it or take their shuttle. Again, wasn't sure how the younger ones would do sitting on a cramped shuttle bus, so walk we did. It's a pretty steep climb; if you do the entire ridge it's 1.5 miles up and 1.5 back. I wasn't about to push a stroller uphill for a mile and a half, but the D.R. staff said the coolest stop on the trail was only about 1/3 mile up. That sounded good to us.
Along the trail/road are great views, as you are walking right where the plains meet the mountains. There are interpretive signs, huge sheets of shale and sandstone that used to be on the bottom of shallow seabeds millions of years ago, but now are practically vertical against the foothills. Fascinating! I actually do find geology interesting. There were also a lot of wildflowers/cactus in bloom. It was just so pretty. But again, very hot. It would have been better earlier in the day; you might notice the kids' little red faces. But they are such awesome troopers. And we had brought a ton of water.
Our efforts were rewarded with a huge sandstone slab that has more than 300 actual dinosaur footprints in it, mainly ornithomimus and iguanadon. If your kids watch Dinosaur Train on PBS you might be familiar with these. It was really awesome, as they are the same spot in which they were discovered, along with bones and other fossils. Pretty cool stuff!
Isabel could not get over the fact that Colorado used to be covered by a warm, shallow sea millions of years ago. In fact, she drew on this new knowledge a few days later when...
... the kids came running into the house, exclaiming that they had found a pile of bones under the deck, and then continuing on to say they found a "skull attached to a spine, and more bones." Brian and I went a-running. This is what they had discovered:
They were super excited about their (gross, disgusting, mysterious) discovery. They declared they were opening a bone museum to show all of their friends. I told them if they do so, they might no longer have friends. Isabel insisted the bones had to be from a sea creature, since "the whole part of Colorado used to be a sea!" And then she found a round, shiny bead during the excavation, which clinched the deal for her, as she surmised it just "had to be a pearl from an oyster," which further proved that the bones were from a sea creature!
After some research, we had to break it to her and the boys that it appears as though a cat had died under the deck (when? how? why?), although neither us nor the previous residents ever owned a cat. But if you are a young child, there are many more creative answers to this crazy riddle.
