Friday, April 11, 2014

Copper Ridge Dinosaur Trackway

An Allosaurus track
If you find yourself near Moab, try checking out a dinosaur trackway. There are some pretty good dinosaur trails we found here: Copper Ridge, Mill Canyon, and Poison Spider.

The Copper Ridge Dinosaur trackway is located 23 miles north of Moab. If you're heading south from I-70, pass mile-marker 149 and look for the turnoff that crosses the tracks on the left (east). Two miles down this dirt road, you'll find the trailhead for the trackway. There is a bathroom (of sorts) and a parking area.

The out-and-back trail that leads up to the trackway is a bit of an incline, but only about 500 feet according to the sign. Rocks mark the trackway, and small rock circles even mark out many of the footprints. A sign at the bottom states that you can pour water in the tracks, and even sweep them lightly with a broom without causing any damage. We were careful around the tracks, but our almost 2 year-old couldn't help but sit directly in the huge sauropod track.

This trackway has three different sizes of tracks: some type of quadraped (most likely Camarasaurus), large therepod tracks (Allosaurus is the best guess), and smaller therepod tracks (no one even made a guess as to what they might be). We had never seen such huge tracks so it was a fun stop for us.  The sign also shows you a few other places you can wander around and find tracks if you want to branch off the main trail.

You have to walk uphill to the tracks, but it's not far.

A brontosaur track (not sure which one)
compared to our 7 year olds foot.

Our almost two year old fit right inside the tracks.

These are the smaller therepod tracks you can see.

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