Dinosaur Land, Day 2

I may or may not have gone crazy taking pictures of Day 2 of our trip, but there was a lot to photograph!  Our first stop that morning was to visit the grounds of the Vernal Temple.  It was beautiful and peaceful.  I love stopping at every Temple we pass.

 We also had to say goodbye to our beloved hotel room.

 And off to Dinosaur National Monument we went!

 Lots of dinosaur bones . . .

 And a huge Allosaurus

 Then we took a driving tour through the National Park.  This was my favorite part of our trip, by far.  The scenery was beautiful and interesting and there was not a soul in sight! 

 Turtle Rock

 Elephant Foot (the kids really liked these!)

 We spent some time throwing rocks in the Green River as well.  The cliffs across the river made for a great echo, and we had a grand time shouting and hearing the echo call back to us.

We also took a little hike up to see . . .

 the petroglyphs.

 I loved this part so much because we were able to enjoy the beauty without crowds of people. It really felt like we were the only four people in the entire world.

 The only downside was that MOM (that'd be me!) forgot to bring water.  Whoops.  Hours and miles of nothing . . . good thing our van didn't break down.

 On the hike back, Madeline left her own little mark in the land.

 We finished off the tour at Josie's Cabin. 

 And how was the car ride home?  Wireless headphones (which Madeline called earmuffs!) and a DVD player made it just lovely.

We sure had a fun trip.  Short and sweet.  I'd do a short trip like that anytime.  Long enough to be fun, but short enough not to get tired out!  Both kids hope to return to Vernal sometime.  It might not seem exciting to most, but we just might have to go back.