This post is misleading. We did in fact make it to Dinosaur National Monument. I have the picture of the sign to prove it.
But we didn’t get to actually experience the park.
We took a very long back road from Colorado National Monument to Dinosaur. It was beautiful and definitely “the road less traveled”. Not a lot of traffic and some gorgeous views. Great route for seeing nature, not so great for finding a bathroom.
Unfortunately, by the time we made it to Dinosaur National Monument, the visitor’s center and shuttle bus to the quarry were closed. And that was the whole reason for going. We weren’t sure what to do.
We thought that maybe we’d spend the night at the campground at the monument and do the quarry in the morning. The kids have always wanted to camp and we had our tent with us.
There were two problems with this though:
1. There was a burn ban on. No campfires and no charcoal grills (we had a charcoal grill). This meant cold hot dogs for dinner. And really, is camping ANY fun without a fire?
2. It was still early in the evening and both Andy and I couldn’t help but think about how many more miles closer to Washington we could get that night.
So, in the end we kept driving and left Dinosaur in the dust. We will definitely stop there again sometime – during the day!!
Have any of you been to Dinosaur National Monument? Is it worth the drive??
I agree it is a beautiful drive to the entrance. We never made it inside either, it was a Sunday (possibly Father’s Day) and the line up of cars quickly discouraged us.
With kids maybe I would go back, but those days are way behind us.
Loved your photos of Colo. Natl. Monument. We were there two weeks ago. Could our paths have crossed? Crowds at the visitor center, but the roads were fairly empty. I also wonder why it is so overlooked as a destination. On previous trips we entered from Fruita, this time from Grand Jct. Beautiful either way.