Utah | Touching REAL fossils and bones at Dinosaur National Monument

Are you caught up with my travel posts? Check out my full Travel Across America trip! 😊

I’ve been to tons and tons of National Parks, but this was by far one of my top 5 favorites. Dinosaur National monument was the most incredible place and I’ll forever remember this as one of the best days of this trip! Here, I was able to touch REAL dinosaur fossils, rocks that were billions of years old, and hike up a side of the mountain to see REAL dinosaur bones in the mountainside. I had a major fangirl moment for the few hours that I was there and I already want to go back. But until then, I’ll relive my trip with these photos. 🦖

I’m a huge, huge, huge fan of rocks. When I was little, I looked forward to driving down into the canyon because of all the changing rock colors and formations. And an embarrassing tidbit: I used to collect “egg-shaped” rocks because I thought they looked like dinosaur eggs (and I named them all Courtney). Yes, I know I was a weird child. And I’m still a weird human, but hey that’s okay. 👽

How awesome is this sign?! I’ve seen tons and tons of state signs on this trip, but none that were on this level of cool. Seriously, I want one of these to hang on a wall in my house.

A REAL dinosaur fossil. It’s REAL!!! How cool is this?!

Honestly. How. AWESOME.

This quarry wall was full of dinosaur fossils because millions and millions of years ago there was a terrible drought and they all died. Then there was a monstrous flood, which brought mud and tar and all kinds of things into the area and then they formed this wall of fossils into the side of the mountain. It was amazing standing here looking at this. I almost cried haha.

I was obviously very happy (and embarrassing). But how often do you get to touch REAL dinosaur bones?! Total nerd moment.

Nothing better than an open road ahead of you, right? 😊