Vernal is a great place to do lots of outdoorsy things. We really enjoy the outdoors and so do our kids. They are three very active boys and it's always nice to get out of the house and do something fun. We've done a couple of hikes this summer, but this one was my favorite. It's three miles round trip and our kids did very well. I was a little worried about Landon making it that far, but he basically ran the whole way. Braden got a little tired and I gave him a piggyback for the last little bit, but overall this was great hike for kids. The trail is mostly sand and rock, but there was very little incline. The trail leads to Redfleet Reservoir and apparently this area was an ancient riverbed and there are a great number of dinosaur relics here. Once we got to the reservoir the kids ran ahead and started throwing rocks in. Then I read the sign and it said please do not let your kids throw rocks because there are actual dinosaur footprints in the old rock beds. So after quickly pulling my kids back we started looking for the footprints. It was amazing to see. Several different kinds of dinosaurs left footprints and the sign said it's one of the only places on the earth where we have consecutive footprints in a row rather than just one print. You could actually see where they walked. Most of the time the footprints are covered in water, but since we've had drought conditions for the last several years the waterline is very low and a large group of footprints are visible that aren't normally. It kind of surprised me that they just let people walk right up to them. The signs told us we could walk out to them, being careful not to step on them or throw other rocks on them. My kids thought it was great to put their hand next to them and see the size difference. Pretty fun experience and I would definitely recommend this fun hike to anyone visiting the area.
Climbing the rocks to search for lizards. You can see Braden pointing to one. There are a TON of lizards here.
Quite a few fun rock formations to climb with great views of the surrounds Uinta mountains.
Looking for more lizards.
We were all ready to move on, but I couldn't get Landon to let go of the lizards he saw run under this huge rock wall. It took all my powers of persuasion to finally get him to keep moving.
Stopping for a quick drink.
Handsome boys.
Sometimes running down the trail. I don't think they ever run out of energy. How would that be?
Landon held my hand quite a bit. It was kind of fun because they're growing up so fast.
At one point Dalin and Landon slid down this sand hill and then Dalin started making a sand angel. They had sand everywhere.
We made it! Dalin got super tired at the end so I suggested he take his shirt off to cool off. I'll have to remember that trick because it worked great.
For some reason my camera died and so I didn't get any pictures of the dino footprints. But then it opened and took one last picture at the end of the trail. Dang camera never works when I need it to.
No comments:
Post a Comment