Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway
a day / 438 miles / 14 hours 35 minutes
The Dinosaur Diamond runs through the best land in the world to learn about dinosaurs. Numerous sites are available to the public where bones and tracks are still visible in the ground. Many museums along the way add to the opportunities to see and learn about dinosaurs.
Day 1
9:00 - 5.9 miles / 11 minutes - 9:11
This small town near the Colorado/Utah border annually celebrates the life of a chicken that grew up headless in the area back in 1945. The chicken lived for two years and made it into the Guiness Book of World Records as well as Ripley's Believe It or Not.
9:11 - 0.1 miles / - 9:11
The Museum of Western Colorado is a modern museum with animated life-like mechanical dinosaur replicas by Dinamation. An active paleontological research program is also based at the museum and offers visitors opportunities to watch fossil preparators at work
in the museum. A limited amount of actual digging for dinosaur fossils under the close supervision of qualified paleontologists may be viewed by arrangement with the museum.10:11 - 200.2 miles / 6 hours 40 minutes - 16:52
College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum
This outstanding university-operated museum has world-class exhibits and is the only accredited museum in the state of Utah that is not in Salt Lake City. Dinosaurs, Native Americans, mining history, and more can be found here.
The Huntington Mammoth stands as a centerpiece of a room full of prehistoric bones and fossils. The 27-foot tall cast of the skeleton of the Columbian Mammoth discovered in Huntington Reservoir on the Energy Loop is complimented by other ice-age creatures like a giant ground sloth and a woolly rhino.
Other exhibits feature the ancient life, cultures and traditions in Utah. The petroglyph exhibits give clues to life for the earliest native dwellers in the area. Visitors will find replicas of typical homes, tools, clothing, and artwork.
Another section of the museum is dedicated entirely to dinosaur fossils and history. Reconstructed skeletons of several dinosaur favorites reign in this part of the museum. Visitors will learn about dinosaur tracks, bones, eggs, and more. A complete look at the life of the dinosaurs can be read about in the multiple displays.17:52 - 81.6 miles / 2 hours 43 minutes - 9:35
Utah Field House of Natural History
The first thing you'll see as you enter this museum is a diplodocus giganticus. Further inside, a diversity of exhibits of historic, prehistoric and geologic times in the Uinta Basin and Mountains are presented. Natural history displays reveal much of the ecological diversity of the area. Artifacts from the Fremont Culture and Ute Indian ceremonial attire are featured in the Amerindian Hall. Other exhibits include fossils in the Geology Hall and the Rock and Mineral Hall.
Eighteen life-sized dinosaurs and creatures from the Mesozoic period (65 to 150 million years ago) are on permanent display in the Dinosaur Gardens. See a ferocious Tyrannosaurus rex, the giant diplodocus, the spiky stegosaurus and the Utah Raptor. A small lake and native foliage representative of the time period complete the illusion.10:35 - 61.6 miles / 2 hours 3 minutes - 12:38
The Rangely Museum has a number of exhibits, some of which include Native American artifacts, details on pioneer settlement of the region, and the area's energy development. One of the most popular exhibits features dinosaur trackways.
13:38 - 88.3 miles / 2 hours 56 minutes - 16:35