Summer Adrift Episode 4: Dinosaur National Monument
Hello everyone and welcome back for another episode of A Summer Adrift! In this episode we traverse north out of Utah and towards Colorado!
Sunset of Dinosaur National Monument
On our way north we didn’t want to rush to the National Monument, so like always, we took the scenic route through a canyon that featured some of the best and most dense petroglyphs sites we’ve seen to date.
Petroglyphs in Nine Mile Canyon
Even through the canyon was only a few miles long, we spent the entire day just driving a few minutes so we could stop and scour the walls for the beautiful Native American art.
Here we saw a variety of styles and age ranges in the art. One of our favorites was a depiction of a pregnant buffalo where there was a tiny little buffalo etched inside of a larger one. We’ve come to love Native American art after growing up with little to no exposure to it. We are so luck to have to much of it here in the American Southwest!
Owen enjoying a beer at camp
Camp after a long day of exploring
MAK, Shruthi & Peter
The gang in 35mm film
After a long day of walking and exploring we found our way to camp and crawled up to a high point to watch the sun dip over the hill.
MAK at camp outside of Dinosaur National Monument
The next day we made our way to Dinosaur National Monument, officially ending our time in Utah for the summer.
Camp outside of Dinosaur National Monument
Areal view of camp
We stayed outside of the park to stay in service and churn through work for a few days, but we LOVED this camp spot.
Sunset of Colorado
We were treated to many-a-beautiful sunsets while we were here. It also gave us a chance to learn more about what we wanted to tackle while we were here in the park.
We were surprised to see just how quiet this area was considering what all it has to offer. There is a more “developed area” of the park but because of COVID, we decided to head into the backcountry in hopes of avoiding any possible crowds… we were successful because I think we only saw a handful of cars the entire time we were there!
As a side note, we HIGHLY recommend the developed section of the park. There is an amazing museum featuring an entire unexcavated rock wall that has thousands of dino bones in it from a wide variety of dinosaurs. They believe that the area used to be a silty bottomed watering hole that entrapped and preserved many of the dinosaurs that came there for water. It’s fascinating and well worth a stop! When we were here that museum was closed due to COVID so check their website before visiting to check that it’s open!
Wind cave
Sandstone wall above the cave
We stopped at this cave that was 30+ degrees cooler than the outside. Wind rushed through from an unseen source and was nestled into the most stunning sandstone wall!
Peter and Shruthi bein’ cute in the cave
The Green River
On our way to camp, we stopped to look at a few sights such as this incredible view of the Green River below. In this section of the park, the Green river turns back on itself making a series of these tight goosenecks which I could stare at for hours!
Blitz looking for a camp spot
MAK enjoying the view
Eventually we made our way to camp at another spot over looking the Green River. The road in was rough and the spot was horribly unlevel, but with a view like this it’s hard to be too upset about it.
View from camp
This spot felt like the perfect place for a fancy feast so we immediately raided our refrigerator for cheese, sausages and anything else to snack on. We sat here enjoying the view until well after dark and vowed to return the next morning for sunrise!
Fancy feast spread
MAK sitting on the floor talking to Peter and Shruthi who were parked not 2ft away from us because the spot was so small
The following morning we woke up early to greet the sun with a cup of coffee in hand! To make that happen we lugged our single burner and propane tank out to the cliff edge we sat on the night before. It was such a delightful way to spend the morning before we packed up, ready to head out on our next adventure!
Thank you all so much for watching/reading/following along! You all are the best! Have an amazing rest of your holiday season and we will see you next year! (but still on Sunday because that is when the next episode comes out!)
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Our work life is powered by Battle Born! They make the best lithium batteries on the market and are a crucial part of our power and solar system that makes working from the road possible! It took an incredible amount of power to create Summer Adrift, and we have Battle Born to thank for making it possible.
We’ve now been living our of our flat-bed Four Wheel Camper for 2 years now. FWC builds comfortable and durable campers that can fit on any truck. We can confidently say that a FWC is the most comfortable and livable rig we’ve had in all of our years on the road!
Maps are your best friend when you’re on the road. On X makes it easy to find open routes and trails near you no matter where we are or the time of year. On X allows us to access saved maps to locate ourselves in the wild. The GPS works perfectly offline, even when service is nonexistent.
MAK’s favorite underwear (or shall I say innerwear) company anywhere! After a long search to find, comfortable, technical and sustainable underwear the search is finally over! Made of ethically sourced Marino Wool, Branwyn underwear are ready for anything you could through at them. Use code BFN15 for 15% off your next order!
Main Line Overland is the shop that built our incredible rig, Roxanne. They are incredibly knowledgable of everything overlanding. We chose to work with them because they build thoughtful, reliable and durable vehicles that can get you to anywhere you ant to be!
Tires can be some of the best insurance when you are out in remote places. We love and trust our Toyo ATIII’s to get us in and get us out safely no matter the terrain. They’re amazing in mud, moon dust, loose rocks, slick rock, you name it!
