Steamboat rock at the junction of Green and Yampa rivers
We drove east this morning to the very small town of Dinosaur, Colorado, where we turned north, re-entered the National Monument and drove up the Harper’s Corner road. We stopped at the information center to pick up a tour booklet, then tried to find the nature trail, because there are supposed to be white tailed prairie dogs. However we couldn’t find the trail, and ended up asking a park ranger where it was. It turned out to be across the road, and we walked it for about two minutes before deciding it was a waste of time. If there are prairie dogs there, they definitely weren’t showing their heads this morning.
It was not a very good day for driving to all the high overlooks over the canyons in this part of the park. Once again today it was very hazy with smoke from the fires north of here in Idaho and Wyoming. The distant views of the mountains described in the tour book were not visible. We could however see the closer up formations made of very bright red and white sandstone, and the changing fall colors of the foliage. We also did see some sage grouse, and the white tailed prairie dogs we were looking for.
After lunch we drove down the narrow dirt road to Echo Park. It has very steep switchbacks at the start, and is very rough with large stones in the road. We were glad we were in a four wheel drive with good clearance. The drive was slow but well worth the time. After the initial descent the road passes through a deep yellow sandstone canyon. It then passes by the ruins of the Chew ranch, abandoned in the mid 1960’s when the land was sold to the national park. Some of the buildings, including an old sod roofed shack were still there.
Pool Creek dot pattern petroglyphs, Feemont culture
Just before reaching Echo Park the road passes by a high sandstone cliff. About 30 metres above the ground are many dot pattern petroglyphs. They are believed to be made by the Freemont culture about one thousand years ago. The dot pattern carvings in the rock are very intricate, the most intricate stone work we’ve ever seen. The patterns seem to represent faces perhaps wearing headdresses and necklaces. It is hard to see how they were made as they are far above the ground on a sheer cliff. The interpretive sign suggested that there were rocks here that they stood on, and that the rocks have been eroded away. That seems questionable to me, for it would be very unusual to get that much erosion in a thousand years. There is absolutely no sign of any rocks that fell from the wall.
Echo Park was the site of a huge ecological battle in the 1950’s. A dam was proposed for this area which would have completely flooded the gorge. Building such a dam within a National Monument would have violated the principle on which national parks were founded. Fortunately, from an aesthetic perspective the environment won, as it is a beautiful area where the Yampa and Green rivers meet.
After supper tonight we went to the ranger talk by the river. He talked about the wild west days of cattle rustling and thievery that lasted here until about 1910. One of the most notorious of the outlaws was Butch Cassidy. Probably the last of the outlaws in this area was Josie Bassett, whose cabin we were at yesterday. She was notorious as a cattle rustler, bootlegger, and female rodeo competitor.