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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Many people head to Colorado in the summer to take in spectacular mountain scenery and cool breezes, to hike, bike and play golf. Others go to dig…for dinosaur bones.
On the far western side of the state, the Museum of Western Colorado in Fruita hosts “Dino Dig” expeditions each summer. Participants visit sites that were home to dinosaurs 150 million years ago, when Colorado was in the tropics and covered with inland seas. They work hand-in-hand with museum scientists to help excavate Jurassic dinosaur bones from quarries, search for new sites and locate dinosaur tracks.
The quarries contain dinosaurs such as Apatosaurus (Brontosaurus), Allosaurus and others, and dinosaur tracks include those of large and small carnivorous dinosaurs from early in the age of reptiles. The digs, which range from one to five days, are open to anyone age 5 and up (those age 16 and younger must be accompanied by a participating adult).
Dig for a day…
John Foster, curator of paleontology for the Museum of Western Colorado, says that one-day digs are a good way for families to “get their feet wet” and find out if they enjoy the experience. One-day programs include several hours participating in a real dig in an area that has yielded a wide variety of dinosaurs. Then it’s back to town for an introduction to lab work and fossil casting, and a tour of the museum.
The popular programs tend to fill up quickly, and reservations are needed. There are still more than a dozen day digs open for this year. Cost for the one-day program is $125/person, and includes transportation between the Museum and quarry, lunch and beverage, field instruction from a professional paleontologist, and admission to the Museum.
Visitors often incorporate one-day digs into a longer vacation to the Grand Junction area, home to Colorado’s fruit orchards, nearly 20 wineries, hiking and biking trails, national monuments and national scenic byways.
…Or five
Five-day digs offer an overview of the whole art of field paleontology, with a day working on each step of the process. Starting with an introductory geology/paleontology presentation, the program includes visits to local geological high points, prospecting for new sites, logging data on the locations and conditions of dinosaur bones and footprint locations, and quarrying. Along the way, participants see some of the most scenic parts of the Colorado Plateau.
This year, the Museum is offering five-day Dino Digs in Fruita as well as in Moab, Utah, at a cost of $1,119/person. The expeditions include transportation from Fruita to the dig locations, lunch and water/Gatorade each day, five nights’ lodging, field instruction, a raft trip on the Colorado River, tours by a professional paleontologist and two dinners.
In Fruita, participants on the five-day program (June 29-July 3) also will tour the geology of Colorado National Monument, make casts of dinosaur bones and work in the lab. Those on the Utah trips (July 13-17, July 27-31, Aug. 24-28) will visit Colorado River canyons, Deadhorse Point State Park, Arches National Park and dinosaur footprint areas.
All programs – one-day or five-day – are limited to 10 people for maximum interaction and learning opportunities, explains Foster.
Where kids teach parents
In recent years, more and more families are taking part in organized dinosaur digs. “Kids tend to know quite a bit about dinosaurs, from what they looked like to what their environment was like,” states Foster. “On a Dino Dig, they have the opportunity to learn – and sometimes teach mom and dad a few things.”
Nonetheless, dinosaur digging is not for everyone. In deciding if a dinosaur dig is a good fit for you or your family, think about the schedule and conditions, says Foster. Parents will be wise to plan site dig trips with their child’s attention span in mind. For example, a Dino Dig’s typical, one-day dig schedule will start at 8:30 a.m., involve a 20-minute drive to the dig site, work at the site til 2 p.m., and return for a tour of the Museum and fossil preparation lab.
“Dino Digs are fun, but work is involved,” stresses Foster. We see young children who can’t get enough, but parents should think about how their kids will handle the work.” He also points out that digs take place in the hot, dry summers of western Colorado and eastern Utah, where participants need to be able to handle the sun and heat for several hours.
Not every family that digs together will make big discoveries. But paleontology is one of the few remaining fields where amateurs – including young people – can make real contributions. A 12-year-old farm boy discovered the first known dinosaur footprints in North America back in 1802, and a 13-year-old once picked up unique fossils while on vacation in northwest Colorado’s Dinosaur National Monument – which paleontologists eventually identified as part of the most complete Allosaurus ever found in the state.
A Day at the Museum
Each Dino Dig includes a tour of Dinosaur Journey Museum, which tells the story of the history of life in western Colorado and surrounding areas with real fossils, robotic reconstructions of dinosaurs, and full-size cast skeletal mounts of Velociraptor, Camarasaurus, Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Othnielia, Camptosaurus and Mymoorapelta.
The hands-on, interactive museum includes paleontology displays, a working laboratory where dinosaur bones are prepared for display, a collections room where scientists study dinosaurs and other animals, a simulated earthquake ride, a dinosaur library reading area, a sandbox for making your own dinosaur tracks and a “quarry site” where kids can uncover actual Jurassic dinosaur bones. Visitors can compare their size to that of the shoulder blade of a Supersaurus, check out a dwarf dinosaur, and see a tiny Jurassic lizard pelvis.
Digging around in the dirt can be a good thing after all. With Dino Digs, the experience focuses on learning, knowledge, responsibility – and having fun.
For more information on Dino Digs, or to make reservations, contact the Museum of Western Colorado at Dino Digs or 888-488-DINO, ext. 212. The Museum is located just outside Grand Junction, Colo. (www.visitgrandjunction.com), 255 miles west of Denver and 272 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.
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