Dinosaur Tracks

Written by Dave: We were traveling through the Navajo nation in northern Arizona on our way to Tuba City when we saw a hand painted sign next to a rough road that said dinosaur tracks. Curious, but not curious enough, we drove on. On our way back to the highway, curiosity won, and I impulsively pulled into the drive. What we found surprised us all. Even the potential skeptics were won over.

There were dinosaur tracks everywhere. Luie and Summer were both fascinated with what they saw. Luie kept saying “You mean dinosaurs were real!” He was very excited. I told Nancy I kept having the song from the Police “Walking in your footsteps” going through my head.

This picture shows a claw mark that was captured with the track.

There was an area the was covered in dinosaur droppings. What I am holding are some of the small splatters.

Our guide used water to help outline the footprints. That way you could see the shapes better. Luie thought that was a pretty big print.

Here is a mother and baby print together.

As we walked further, we moved into the dinosaurs bathroom. I am standing right next to some larger pieces.

Here is a look across the field. They all seemed to use this area.

This is a T-rex foot print. From the size of that print, glad we never ran into anything like that. Luie and Summer were both in awe of this one. Nancy said I kept walking around with a big smile on my face. I said “yes, I’m such a nerd.”

If you look carefully at the rock, you can see the skin from the T-rex. It is the darker area. Pretty cool.

It is difficult to see the scale, but this is part of the spine of the T-rex. Very big lizard.

This is a fossilized skull of a dinosaur. Can’t remember what kind it was. Our guide said that there were 3-4 others there before, but thieves have taken them over time.

These are fossilized eggs. We were told they were likely alligator eggs. You can even see the yolk in one.

This is a claw from the foot of a dinosaur. Apparently there used to be a full claw raised above the rocks, but some vandals tried to chip it out, and ended up just destroying it. This is all that is left.

The unique thing about this place is that you could walk right on and around everything. This is a rib cage of a dinosaur. We could touch it, and when you knocked on it with your knuckles, you could tell it was porous like bone would be. Our guide said that there is talk of getting a glass dome to put over this in the future to help keep thieves and vandals from damaging it.

This was our wonderful guide. She was very knowledgable, as she follows around the paleontologists who come every few months to dig and document more finds. She says some of the more fantastic finds from this location are now in large museums. She said there was a full T-rex in a museum I believe in New York. She would not accept any money for her guide services, but she did have some jewelry that could be purchased for very reasonable prices. Summer got a nice jasper bracelet. She chose jasper as that was the local stone here, and was found all throughout the dinosaur tracks. You never know what you might stumble upon during your journeys, and this was a memorable find.