Eastern Utah features diverse geological and historical landscape.

Welcome to Eastern Utah

We have to show you what we discovered driving in eastern Utah.   We thought these rock formations were pretty.

All formed by wind and water

There are many deer here.

We love to see deer

We saw several, but we loved each one.   This part of eastern Utah has a really ancient history.   150 million years ago, dinosaurs roamed.  We saw the bones from over 500 dinosaurs that died 149 million years ago.   Further signs told us more:   95 million years ago shallow seas covered Utah.   65 million years ago all dinosaurs became extinct.  45-65 million years ago the Rocky Mountains rise up.   It is those magnificent Rocky Mountains we admire every day.   Then 5 million years ago the Green and Yampa Rivers cut canyons here.   4 million years ago the earliest human ancestors are in Africa.   50,000 years ago we have the earliest evidence of Big Horn Sheep in Utah.   And they are still here.  16,000 years ago the most recent ice age was world wide.   1,000 years ago the Fremont People lived in Eastern Utah.   Remember these petroglyphs they left from previous post?

Petroglyphs

1909 dinosaur fossils were discovered in this area.   We wanted you to see all that has happened here to form this unusual landscape.  In 1776 a group of 10 explorers tried to find a land route between present day Santa Fe, New Mexico and Monterey, California.   During this expedition, these explorers passed through this land also.   Remember that this same year, 1776, our forefathers were writing the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.

Early explorers were here

This expedition was led by two priests, Father Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Father Silvestre Velez de Escalante.  Utah had dinosaurs, was underwater, survived the emergence of the Rocky Mountains, and even white explorers 100 years before Utah gained statehood.   That is a lot of changes for our duck minds to absorb.    Mammals and dinosaurs first appeared here, in the Chinle Formation.

Dinosaurs and mammals here

Love this area.

So many uses and changes over the last 150 million years

In this Humbug Formation, once there was a tropical sea.

Humbug Formaton. Deposits of a Tropical Sea Really?

And at the Stump Formation, giant marine reptiles once swam.

Stump Formation. Where Giant Marine Reptiles Swam. Are you sure?

There sure in no water here now for any swimming.   What a huge change occurred here.   Giant stegosaurus dinosaurs once wandered here.

Morrison Formation. Stegosaurus Wandered Here

Wait, mom!   Stegosaurus once wandered here and they had huge feet.

Stegosaurus here? Let’s get out of here

Do you think they will come back?   We are so small they would not see us.   Are they really gone?  Really extinct?   Remember we watched the movie Jurassic Park.   We, Zeb and Soapy, hope you visit eastern Utah and see this amazing landscape and visualize all the changes that have taken place here.