We slept in a bit and then drove the rest of the way to dinosaur national monument. We decided the first town we stopped at to get some showers at the KOA, fill up the propane and the water tank, and dump the other tanks. It took us about an hour, but we were definitely clean and ready for the next 90 minutes of driving.
As we entered the park, we noticed a huge herd of elk that had taken over a huge alfalfa field. We pulled out the binoculars and watch them for a little while. We continued on into the park and visited the visitor center, that our stamps and stickers and had a nice conversation with the park. Ranger at the counter. She suggested based on Kathy’s interest in historical characters, that we visit the homestead of Josie Bassett. The area was really nice, so we decided just to get a camp spot in the national monument before heading out on the tour.
the national park had an audio tour of this portion of dinosaur national monument, so we listen to the narrator as we drove the path through a bunch of petroglyphs and beautiful canyons. At one point we got out and did a little hike to try to find some more petroglyphs and the cabin, but realize that we were in the wrong spot for the cabin.
There are multiple sites of petroglyphs on the way to the cabin, and we stopped and looked at the thousand year-old chisel paintings on the wall. Kathy and I both chuckled because back then they definitely were not confused about gender.
Male
Female
Josie Bassett settled in cub Creek around 1930. She planted an orchard, a garden, built a pond to catch the springwater, a chicken coop, and a cabin that you later moved and expanded. She also had pigs and cows that she conveniently panned up in the box Canyon behind her Homestead. She has an interesting story in that she was successful farmer and rancher until at some point she tried to expand her ranching business, and ended up losing the title to most of her land. She was married five times in her life, and had a fling with Butch Cassidy as a teenager. Kathy bought the book, and will have more to report later.
We actually did not see any of the dinosaurs in the monument other than the stegosaurus out front because the huge amphitheater was closed for remodeling. We headed back, set up camp and had leftovers for dinner. It actually rained a little bit on us that night. Here are some additional photos from the day.
https://www.overlandadventureexcursions.com/photos-albums/nggallery/album/20250927-dinosaur-national-monument