Mike Nelson's Colorado-Dinosaur Tracks

You may not know this, but the largest dinosaur track site in North America is actually in Southeastern Colorado. The tracks are preserved in the Comanche National Grasslands south of La Junta. According to the Forest Service Web site, "150 million years ago, hundreds of dinosaurs inhabited the area that is now the Purgatoire River Valley. Southeastern Colorado at that time was dominated by a vast freshwater lake. As the dinosaurs plodded through the mud along the edge of this lake, they left behind vast trails of footprints in the soupy muck. Later, these muddy flats were buried and turned to stone. Today, over 1,300 of these footprints are exposed at the Picketwire Canyonlands dinosaur track site."

Exploring the track site takes some work. The drive from La Junta is more than 30 miles, much of it on dirt roads. Then there are two options for exploring the area. You can park at the trailhead and explore by hiking, mountain biking or horseback riding through the Picket Wire canyonlands. From the trailhead to the dinosaur track site is 5.3 miles each way. Or you can take an auto tour offered by the Forest Service on Saturdays in May, June, September, and October. Tours are $15 for adults and $7.50 for children, and you need a four-wheel-drive vehicle. For a reservation, call the USDA Forest Service at 719-384-2181. For more information about the auto tours, click here. For more information about the area, click here.

It doesn't just take some work to get to the dinosaur track site, it also takes some work to get to the actual tracks. Expect a short hike from the parking lot, then expect to get wet. While some tracks are on the river bank on the same side of the river as the parking lot, most of the tracks are on the other side, meaning a river crossing. The Purgatoire River can be ice cold and fast-moving. Archaeologist Michelle Stevens said it "takes a little more effort, but it's worth it."

The tracks themselves are easy to see, but not perfect. The tracks are in crumbling rock, so some have eroded away, others are filled with dirt and some even have plants growing in them. Because the surface is eroding from rain and occasional flooding, rangers don't clean out the tracks, to avoid any more damage.

The tracks were left by large, long-necked, four-legged plant-eaters like brontosaurus and two-legged meat-eaters such as allosaurus. Stevens said it's an important find because you see two sets of tracks next to each other, "because they're parallel, they (the dinosaurs) must have been walking side by side, which suggests some kind of social behavior with dinosaurs." It's a place visitors don't forget. Tom Adams visited the area a few months earlier and said the tracks "are really extensive, where you can really see the gate of a dinosaur and how it was walking along, you can really imagine and it really brings it to life."

The track site extends about a quarter mile and while so many stories about dinosaurs take a lot of imagination, this place does not. Adams said it "looks like dinosaur walking in sand and that sand just froze in time."

In addition to the dinosaur tracks, there are other sites to see in Picket Wire canyon. There is rock art believed to be 375 to 4,500 years old. There is the Dolores Mission and Cemetery built sometime between 1871 and 1889 when Hispanic settlers first began permanent settlement in the valley. The Forest Service Web site says "partial remains of the Mission and Cemetery are still visible." And you can see the Rourke Ranch, also known as the Wineglass Ranch, a cattle and horse ranch founded by Eugene Rourke in 1871. The Forest Service Web site says "Three generations of the Rourke family lived and worked on the ranch, ensuring its survival over a span of a hundred years. When the ranch was sold in 1971, it was known as one of the oldest and most successful enterprises in southeast Colorado, expanding from Eugene's original settlement of 40 acres to well over 52,000 acres."