We enjoyed another dip before heading over to the Big Water Dinosaur Visitor Center. An impressive facility, it boasted a brand new modern exhibition building chock full of strange new fossils. The curator there looked just like Jon Hammond from “Jurassic Park,” complete with the portly build, white beard, and glasses. He provided a wealth of information including the different geological layers and what was found in them. Over the past 3 years they have been digging up many new dinosaur species. Nearly 80% of the species they have found are brand new to science. I was amazed at the drawings of these creatures, like nothing I’d ever seen before.
We wondered if there were any fossils we could find on our way to our destination, Alstrom Point. I suspect there may have been, but that information was not readily handed out. Also most of our planned route was in a National Park, so no collecting would be permitted.
It was a 25 mile drive on dirt roads to get to Alstrom Point. Luckily we had good directions from our “Mr. Hammond,” because there were a number of confusing forks where it would have been easy to mess up. Most of the drive was smooth, but near the point there were rough spots that required 4 wheel drive.
Along the way we stopped to admire a jack rabbit who curiously stopped and slowly walked under the ER! Strange. We also caught a beautiful colared lizard
About this time we stopped to check on the bikes and realized the bike rack was very loose. All the bumps and wash-boarding on the road had taken its toll. The main bolt that held the rack folded up against the vehicle was stripped. Ugh. This was something we would have to fix soon. We temporarily secured it using one of Roscoe’s cable tethers. It would keep the rack from falling off, or swinging out, but it was a very temporary solution. And it was very inconvenient to remove the bikes.
We enjoyed the spectacular views at Alstrom Point. You could see Lake Powell almost as if you were in a helicopter.
It was fun to be on top of the mesa looking down at the miniscule houseboats below. (Note the white boat in the far left corner of the picture.) On the way back we looked for fossils, but we didn’t find any. We camped again at Lone Rock Campground and enjoyed another blissful swim.
