Visit Dinosaur Ridge in Colorado!

The main track bed is magnificent, but it’s not the only ‘attraction’ to see at Dinosaur Ridge. They have other world famous features.

• Brontosaurus Bulges  The deep, heavy footprints of brontosauruses, their weight permanently indenting the earth.  A brontosaurus weighed about 15-30 tons (as compared to Mammoths at The Mammoth Site that weighed 8-10 tons).  Their name means ‘thunder lizard’; imagine the earth-shaking rumble of their steps!  But he wasn’t the biggest one living here.  The brontosaurus is a sauropod, related to the apatosaurus, which has also been found at the ridge.  Apatosaurus (the largest dino to live here) was 90 feet long and weighed a whopping 40 tons!  To compare, our largest elephant today (African) reaches up to 11 tons.  

• Raptor tracks As recently as 2016, the 1^st sickle-clawed raptor track ever found in Colorado was discovered here. They were only the 2^nd ever found in North America.  Out of the 16 other raptor tracksites found in the world, 12 are in China, so finding one in Colorado is a stunning discovery.  The raptor tracks are, also, an extremely rare, 2-toed print. They are from retractable-clawed, carnivorous raptors like velociraptors made famous in the Jurassic Park movie. 

Bone Bed Dozens of Jurassic dinosaur bones have mineralized into the rock as dark reddish-brown fossils.  The bones became radioactive when uranium-bearing ground water deposited uranium into the decaying bones.  The bones are from the allosaurus (a 16ft tall fast running, Jurassic carnivore), stegosaurus (herbivore with a tiny brain & bite force just 1/2 of a dog’s) & apatosaurus (1st discovered at Dinosaur Ridge; was believed separate from brontosaurus, then thought to be the same, now a number of experts believe them to be separate, distinct dinos, again!)  

• Ripple Marks from the currents & waves of a vast, ancient sea that completely split all of North America in half! Before the Rocky Mountains formed, a 100 million years ago, this area was a flat, sandy ‘dino beach’ rather than the mountainous Colorado of today. It was a warm, shallow ocean like today’s Gulf of Mexico, swarming with giant mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, sharks and other ancient marine life.  They’ve recovered shark teeth, shells and marine fossils here.

• Crocodile Creek  This area wasn’t always a seaway.  It was a swamp, at one time, and like the African savannah, at others.  Ancient crocodile swim tracks where they scraped their claws along the bottom as they swam are here from 100 million years ago. Crocodiles in Colorado! Also, duck-billed ornithopod “bird footed” dino tracks are scattered here.

• A layer of ancient volcanic ash from a prehistoric volcanic eruption, 100s of miles away.  The volcanic layer has higher radioactivity readings than the surrounding rock.  Colorado still has 1 ‘active’ volcano remaining, but it last erupted over 4000 years ago.

• Trek Through Time Exhibit Hall–  There is a small museum that has displays on the history of the site & the dinos, and the geology of the area.  There are fun interactive exhibits for kids and some fun statues indoors and outside for photos.  It is either $2 per person, or is included with a bus tour or shuttle ticket.  

• 2 Kids Play Areas outside the Main Visitor Center:  The Backyard Bones site is a simulated dinosaur dig that lets kids play at being paleontologists searching for fossils and identifying the bones.  The Seaway Fossil Box is a large sand box where kids can sift for shark teeth, shells & ammonites.  They can keep 1 and bury the rest.  If they show their find at the Visitor Center, they’ll receive a bag and id card souvenir.