Dinosaur Ridge
Guide Line Review
Dinosaur Ridge
We met at Dinosaur Ridge and started our program with a picnic. Norma Bovee provided chicken, several salads, watermelon, brownies, soft drinks and water and we all had a wonderful meal. At the conclusion of the picnic, Norma introduced Tom Moklestad, Program Director, and Bobbi - the lead guide. Tom and Bobbi gave us some background information on Dinosaur Ridge as well as information about tours. Just as you enter the parking area there are public restrooms in a small shed that is very visible. The main building houses offices and the gift shop where we all were entranced by the kid-sized sneakers with dinosaur footprints on the soles. There is a large grapevine covered porch that has several picnic tables and benches where we had our picnic.
Tom noted that Dinosaur Ridge is a non-profit venue started in 1989 as a concerned citizens group to preserve the area. Joe Temple was the leader and still is. This area was once part of the Warner Ranch which was a subdivision of the Rooney Ranch. The Rooney family once owned over 4,000 acres in the area but now own only 200 acres and some of the family still live here. The Rooneys were friendly with the Utes and knew Chief Colorow who was 6’5” tall. The Rooneys say that he could eat them “out of house and home”. A five-generation history has recently been written - available in the gift shop.
Jeffco Open Space bought the land and charges Dinosaur Ridge $1/year rent. The City of Lakewood does the snowplowing in the winter. Over 100,000 people visit each year to see the many tracks. When they first started guided tours about 6,000-7,000 people/year got a guided tour. Now 65,000-70,000 people get guided tours.
These tours are taken on several 12-20 passenger buses. Large coaches are unable to turn around on the hill so can go up and over the ridge and exit on the west side. The gate is fully automated and remains open for as long as 40 seconds. For a motor coach a guided tour costs $3/person though there generally is no charge without a guide. The tour has several interpretive signs to provide information. Fifteen thousand students visit each year. These students get the right-of-way (ROW), then the shuttle buses have the ROW, then birthday parties, school groups with a time slot and then tour coaches. Group reservations should be made two weeks in advance. If your group comes at the same time as a guided tour is being given, your group can listen as well for no charge. The road is wide enough for two motor coaches to pass each other. A parked coach must turn off their engine. The speed limit is limited to 20 mph. The lanes are also used for bicycle traffic. The road was built in 1937 by the WPA and the dinosaur tracks were covered until 1950 and then sat unnoticed until 1970.
Dinosaur Ridge has 20 volunteer school guides. Paid staff are driver/guides and there are 10 PUC licensed drivers. Usually there are three available every day. Last year Dinosaur Ridge has 25,000 shuttle tours and expect that number to climb to 35,000 this year. Some of the shuttle buses have microphones. The mission of the Ridge is education and there are dinosaur games, puppets, paint and rocks, as well as sifting for fossils activities available for the children.
PBS has programs encouraging children to go see dinosaurs. The Ridge website is dinoridge.org. SCFD keeps track of where people come from (i.e., which county in Colorado are they from).
In 1973, the National Park Service designated this area as the Morrison Fossil Area National Natural Landmark, in recognition of its uniqueness and its historical and scientific significance. In 2001, the State of Colorado designated it a State Natural Area for its paleontological and ecological significance. In 2006, the Colorado Geological Survey designated both Dinosaur Ridge and Triceratops Trail as Points of Geological Interest. Also in 2009, USA Today recognized Dinosaur Ridge as the outstanding free vacation venue in Colorado.
We used two shuttle buses to ascend the hill to see the tracks, passing the Rooney ranch on our way. Tom and Bobbi explained that the oldest period we will see here is late Jurassic (150 million years ago when it was a swamp) and that the layered rock is sedimentary. There is a blank period with no tracks for about 45 million years when this area was on an Arctic Ocean coast (the second age of dinosaurs). The third age of dinosaurs included triceratops. We viewed a Tyrannosaurus Rex (T-Rex) footprint (68 million years old) that is thought to be only the second known footprint in the world though this has not been verified. Iguanodons made most of the tracks. Colorado’s state fossil is the Stegosaurus. Though the tracks are on a steep hillside, when the dinosaurs walked here the land was flat. The rock is Benton Shale and was once on the bottom of an ocean about 600’ deep. The ripple bumps are approximately 100 million years old. Fish scales and shark teeth have been found here. There were crocodiles here as well as dinosaurs. Dinosaur bones have been found in other places in Colorado. Triceratops bones were found in the construction of Coors Field; hence the Rockies mascot is Dinger (a triceratops). Red Rocks Park is visible from the Ridge and it is much older (300 millions years) and was part of the first upheaval. Dinosaur Ridge is in the Morrison Formation which runs from Mexico to Canada, hence the name of the town of Morrison. Fruita on the Western slope is also in the Morrison Formation. Morrison is a national natural landmark and some Golden sites have been added to this landmark. Auraria has the world’s largest collection of dinosaur tracks.
Arthur Lakes, a preacher, teacher and miner, found the first stegosaurus bones in 1877. Arthur Lakes sent samples to Yale University and there are still crates in the basement of the Peabody Museum at Yale with bones from the Ridge. Marsh and Cope were two men who feuded over the bones. This was a competition that Arthur Lakes fostered. Now fossilized feces is called Coprolite, named by Marsh for Cope. Allosaurus were meat-eating dinosaurs while the long necked dinosaurs such as diplodocus and brontosaurus were plant eaters. We saw individual bones embedded in rock – the rock is too hard for the bones to be extracted. The bone fossils are darker and are slightly radioactive. Radiometric dating can date crystals in volcanic ash and that can be dated to determine the age of these fossils. The hillside dating here came from volcanic ash from southern Arizona or northern Utah blown here 105 million years ago. Birds are the closest relatives to dinosaurs.
There are approximately 330 tracks in one area of the hillside, some of which look to be something similar to an Iguanodon which could walk on either two or four legs. Most of the dinosaurs did not drag their tail. In order to preserve this site from the weather and erosion, a cover is planned for the near future. Fossilized eggs and nests have also been found which were pointed out. This is a very fun venue for everyone - families and school-age children in particular.
-- Nancy Brueggeman
What: RMGA Program
When: Monday, June 11, 2012
Visit to the Indoor Exhibit Hall, Trek Through Time
7:00 pm Guided Shuttle Bus Tour followed by brief meeting
Where: Dinosaur Ridge
Program: Guided Shuttle Bus Tour of Dinosaur Ridge & self-guided tour of the Indoor Exhibit Hall
Presenter: Amber Cain, Volunteer Coordinator
The Dinosaur Ridge area has been used by several generations of earth science teachers as an outdoor geology laboratory for students of all ages, and it has received several distinctive honors:
* In 1973, the National Park Service designated this area as the Morrison Fossil Area National Natural Landmark, in recognition of its uniqueness and its historical and scientific significance.
* In 2001, the State of Colorado designated it a State Natural Area for its paleontological and ecological significance.
* In 2006, the Colorado Geological Survey designated both Dinosaur Ridge and Triceratops Trail as Points of Geological Interest.
* Also in 2009, USA Today recognized Dinosaur Ridge as the outstanding free vacation venue in Colorado.
In 1989, the friends of dinosaur Ridge formed in order to address increasing concerns about the preservation of the site and to educate the public about the areas resources. In 1994, the friends began renovating a house and barn unhistorical Rudy ranch to create the dinosaur Ridge visitor Center. Today, the former ranch house has become a gift shop offering many attractive and educational items related to dinosaurs and geology, and the barn now hosts an educational exhibit, Trek through Time, where visitors may orient themselves to the natural history of this area before or after their visit to the fossil sites. Every year Dinosaur Ridge and Triceratops Trail are destinations for close to 100,000 dinosaur enthusiasts, earth scientists, students of all ages, and nature lovers.
Our shuttle bus tour will explore the geology and paleontology of Dinosaur Ridge. Dinosaur Ridge's guided tour takes you back 150 million years into the Jurassic period, where you can see and touch dinosaur bones that are still embedded in the sandstone. After visiting the Dinosaur Bone Quarry, the Apatasaurus (Brontosauras) Bulge site gives you a view of multiple pairs of natural dinosaur foot cast. Then head into the Cretaceous, (100 million years ago) and see over 330 dinosaur footprints from Iguanadons and Orthomimus. Crocodile tracks are also visible within the track site.