Early May, 2019
Brush, CO- LOTS of beef feed lots! Hundreds, if not thousands of cattle, in finishing lots. In the US, more than 90 million cattle are slaughtered each year to feed us. And so that means there must be a lot of feed lots somewhere!
Stopped at Loveland for one night- and it snowed! UGH! and then we headed across the Rockies thinking to take a route that was not the interstate…oops…Rockie Mtn. National Park was not open, at least the road through the mountains. So we backtracked and came down the eastern side of the Rockies and picked up Interstate 70 for an hour until we could get to Rt 40 and head north and west through the countryside. And it snowed…in May.

A tiny campground along the Colorado River in Hot Sulphur Springs and it snowed.

Next we stayed at a (expensive) state park on the Yampa River.
What a gem- Dinosaur National Monument. A great little campground along the Green River with incredible views and this huge white cliff face rising above us. The Dinosaur Quarry Exhibit Hall is amazing!

This section of rock is in place as it was discovered and partially excavated. Now it is covered and stabilized for visitors to see.

During the dinosaur era, a great flood washed dinosaurs down the valley to this spot. They were covered in layer upon layer of silt and rock over millions of years and then the land wen thru an upheaval that pushed ancient layers up to the surface vertically. The fossils were found in the sandstone layer. This area has the oldest, most complete geologic record in North America- layer upon layer of different materials from different eras of the past. Fascinating!
We hiked back down from the Exhibit Hall and met a friendly work crew rebuilding the trail. Also, lots of wildflowers and petroglyphs.