Dinosaur Tracks On Potash Road

We found a room in the Best Western Canyonlands in downtown Moab and then ate dinner at Pasta Jays. Thomas had an ice cream cone for dessert. We went for a swim in the motel pool.

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the motel and then checked out and ran errands. We bought film, candy, hand lotion, bottled water, and Pokemon playing cards.

After lunch at Taco Bell, we headed north on UT-191 to Potash Road, UT-279 W, to see dinosaur tracks. Our map said the tracks were 4.5 miles in, so when we hit 5.0 miles we backtracked and looked again. No luck there, so we continued west on UT-279 and finally found the track site at 5.7 miles from UT-191!


The dinosaur tracks are on an eight-by-four-foot slab of rock partway fallen down a slope, about 30 feet above the roadway. The entrance to the site is by a drive on the right of the road, and then up to a parking lot.

This information sign is on the west end of the parking lot, the far side from the tracks. Poison Spider Mesa - we didn't know it was called that before we came!


The slab with the dinosaur tracks is circled.

We followed a path down to the right, then up a bare stone stretch, then a narrow path along the edge of the cliff to the slab. The trail was not well marked - we had one false start and then we guessed a bit.


Finally - here is the slab with the dinosaur tracks.

Dick took this photo with the wide-angle lens, stepping back as far as he dared.


This was our route back down to the parking lot.

Dick was nervous all the way up and down, not wanting Thomas to slip.


The Colorado River was south of the road here.

Scroll to the right to see the panorama.


Copyright (C) 2000 by Dick Hodgman.
If you would like a large format copy of an image, contact Dick through http://www.hodgman.org/contact/

Last modified on 2003 January 13

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