Dinosaur Valley

Glen Rose is the name given to the city in Texas nearest to Dinosaur Valley State Park.  Most dinosaur evidence is in museums these days, but there's a river bed one round-trip tank of gas away from Dallas that makes it a little more real.   113 million years old real.  I told the girls to watch out for the dinosaurs all day.

We took a day trip a couple weeks back to do some hiking and have some prehistoric exposure.

Check out the park's guide here:

Interpretive Guide to Park Tracks

We stopped first at the dinosaur models from the 50 year old world's fair.  It was fun to see the girls get an idea of how big dinosaurs were.  These models must look enormous to them.  I couldn't get Ella to think they were alive.  She kept assuring me they were inanimate.  Her words might have been "not real."

Watch out, he looks hungry and you had some IHOP pancakes for breakfast.

We next decided on the loop hike crossing the river at track site #2 to follow the blue trail along the ridge around the park.  Some of the tracks in this section were long ago cut out of the river bed and sent to the Fort Worth museum.  You can see an assembled skeleton of the Texan dinosaur and its tracks there.  The models on display are not the species that lived here and they did not even exist at the same time in history.

This is a view of the Paluxy River facing track site #2 from the far side ridge.

Ava is prone to wander off trail at the first sign of adventure.  The above picture was taken properly level.

We parked the crew for a pit stop to hydrate and snack up.   

Ella maintained her 'leadership' status for the entire hike.

The most exciting bridge in the county.  Probably.  For two and four year olds.

One ranger did pullover his four wheeler and say hello.  He answered a few questions about what to look for and sent us towards the tracks at site #4.  Ella remarked after his pulled away that he was "a very nice stranger."  We got to explain what a park ranger was to her.  She must've just thought he was a helpful guy who lived in the park.  

Watch out for dinosaurs.  These are from track site #4.

This is what the Ranger called a 'tail drag'.  Some big thing not called a brontosaurus cruised through here not keeping his tail up.

The most exciting thing was surely the three-toed tracks.

He did nearly fall into the water a moment after this above pic was shot.  He turned and sat down with his back to the edge.  

We enjoyed marching Calvin around the ancient tracks.  He gets to learn to walk in the footsteps of theropods.

The walk back across the park to the car was a long march as the pistol pictured below wanted a ride.  She does not always get what she wants.

We spent a bit over three hours in the park.  The hike was easy with lots of families going each way.  There are lots of biking and hiking paths left for backpacking away from the roads, too.  The campground was full and we saw a big Boy Scout troop enjoying a tug of war.  We really enjoyed making this day trip.  It would be a great introductory hiking park for kids if you don't know how far you can go with them.  

Best Regards