We put our National Park Pass to use again and visited the Colorado side of Dinosaur National Monument.
Dinosaur National Monument is definitely one of the lesser visited Monuments. We started by driving out Harpers Canyon. There are multiple viewpoints along this road with short hikes and we stopped at almost all of them to take in all the vistas. Bonus, we only saw a handful of people all day!
Harpers Corner Trail
We stopped at Harpers Corner Trail and hiked two miles round trip out to the overlook. The elevation is around 7500′ and beautiful. This is definitely worth it! Along the way we hiked through Pinon Pine, Utah Juniper and even a few Douglas Firs as we enjoyed the sweet smells of the forest. At the end we marveled at the beauty of the rivers 2500′ below. Steamboat Rock, the Green and Yampa rivers, and Whirlpool Canyon are all visible from the lookout. Gazing out, it’s hard to follow the river as it is lost in a maze of sandstone twisting and turning dramatically.
I read a sign board that talked about a dam proposal below the lookout we hiked to. In the 1950’s, controversy arose over a proposal to build a dam for water storage and power generation in Dinosaur National Monument. Thankfully many people protested that the Green and Yampa Canyons deserved to remain in their natural state. The protests were heeded but the dam was instead built at Flaming Gorge which we plan to visit next week. Even the the dam is 70 mile away, it still affects this area. Stream side plants, some invasive, are no longer scoured out by spring floods and are spreading. Native fish, adapted to muddy water, have retreated to the Yampa River because most of the Green River’s sediment now settles behind the dam.
Echo Canyon
Echo Canyon is a 12 miles 4wd dirt road that dives 2500′ down to Echo Park and the confluence of Yampa and Green Rivers. We drove down and hiked along the river to the confluence. Along the way we passed the Chew family homestead. Their cattle and sheep ranch homestead is a historic site today and is in a beautiful setting though a big of distance still from the river.
The drive winds down across the Yampa Bench and through rugged rocky terrain. Bent and broken rock layers push up at all angles. We stopped at the Pool Creek Petroglyphs. About 1000 years ago the Freemont people created these dot pattern carvings. They were high up on the wall and one can only assume that when they were originally carved, the ground was quite a bit higher and Pool Creek has eroded the ground since.
After having hiked way up above on the Harpers Corner Trail, it was fun to now be down at the river we had been oogling earlier in the day above. The massive Steamboat Rock is impressive as the waters of Green River flow by. This was a favorite spot of mine for the day as it was incredibly quiet and scenic.
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