We (parents and 11 year-old son who loves dinosaurs)are taking a cross-country trip from the east coast to Yellowstone/Grand Teton National Parks. Is Dinosaur National Monument and Vernal, Utah worth a detour and an additional day drive from Jackson, WY?

If we do this detour, we would take route 70 to Colorado Springs and visit Pike's Peak.

This would only add 2 days to our trip. Is it worth it?

Thanks,

Lynda

LynTom,

I'm not sure where you are driving from so I won't comment on the routes. I happen to like Dinosaur NP, there are some really nice hikes and floats there. For a dinosaur loving kid the visitors center would be a hoot, lots of bones partially excavated in an old river bank. But Vernal isn't worth seeing except as a way station. There is a whole lot of nothing between dinosaur and the Jackson area. Tough call, I'd say, no, not on this trip.

BeanMan

I have to agree. It's a neat thing to see if you are in the area but I wouldn't go way out of my way. Now, if you plan to see more of Colorado, that would be worth a longer stay.

If you do decide to do this, there is something to stop and see between Jackson and Vernal. Just east of Farson, WY are places where you can still see the Oregon Trail. If your son has studied this period of history or played the video game, it might be worth a 30 minute stop.

we went last year and my two children really loved it.they were 9 and 12

Thanks. If we go to Dinosaur NP, I am thinking about going down to Arches National Park; according to Expedia it is only about a 3 hr. drive and then going on to Manitou Springs, Co.
where we will visit the Cliff Dwellings and Pikes Peak.

LYnda

Hi Lynda,

I haven't personally driven all of the route from Dinosaur down to Moab, but I do know that the first part is a high mountain pass. It's 228 miles from Vernal to Moab and I don't think that can be done in 3 hours. My Microsoft Streets and Trips puts it at about 4 1/2 hours.

If you planned on going from Vernal to Arches and on to Manitou Springs, Co in one day, that's 655 miles (approx 11 hours of driving time) and I wouldn't recommend trying to do that in one day and see Arches.

On this route from Vernal to Moab, you will be passing a town called Price, Utah. Nearby is Nine Mile Canyon. Not sure why it's called that because it's a lot longer than 9 miles, but I've heard it has tons of petroglyphs! I've never been, but it's on my list of "to do's".

Utahtea

Utahtea,

If we DO go to Arches, we will spend one night each in Vernal and Moab. Then, the next day, we will stay in either Aspen or Avon, Co.and go to Manitou Springs via route 24 since we have no desire to drive through Denver. We'll also spend the night in Manitou Springs, then head to either Colby or Hayes Kansas then to St. Louis to visit my aunt, then a 10-hour drive home.

I have reservations at all of those places, but I think we will wait until our last night in Jackson to decide for sure. To come home, we have to go to Rock Springs anyway, so that's why I thought it might not be too much out of the way to go to Dinosaur. Then when I saw that Moab was only about 3 hrs. away....I'm just going to have to hope that we get back out there again sometime.

If we go only to Dinosaur and not Pikes Peak, would the trip to Pike's Peak be horribly out of the way? It really doesn't look as if it would be that easy to get to, but I would love to go there.

Or, if we don't go to Dinosaur, would we be making a mistake to go to Pikes Peak? If we don't go to Pike's Peak, our route home will be I-80 to St. Louis, MO., then I-64 to 3 miles from our house.

Many, many thanks,

Lynda

when i drove cross country from nj several years ago, i did dinosaur because i was coming off of trailridge road in rocky mountain national park so it was on the way i really loved it but i don't think i'd go out of the way for it, vernal as others have said is a place to fill up on fuel and food, and move on. i then went to utah. did yellowstone a different time. there is tons to do in the moab area. but that seems very out of the way from yellowstone. you could also check out fossil butte which isn't as good as dinosaur but still interesting. have fun.

Lynda,

I hope you keep your plans to see Dinosaur, Arches, Aspen and even Pikes Peak. Pikes Peak wasn't that exciting to me, but then we didn't go to the top. Interstate 80 from Rock Springs driving east is SO BORING and if Nebraska is anything like Kansas, it's BORING too.

You won't be driving that much out of your way, but the driving times will be slower than the interstates. My feeling is, keep all your plans and if it gets to much for you then just cancel the rest and head for home.

I haven't done the section of Hwy 24 from I-70 down to Leadville, but we have done Hwy 82 from Apen over Independence Pass. This is a very scenic mountain pass! If you don't like windy mountain driving then stick to the Interstate and Avon.

Utahtea

Thanks again, UTAHTEA.

I think we will do as you have suggested and just keep all our plans 'til we either run out of energy or money.

I am leaning towards spending the night in Aspen--I think we would enjoy seeing the area since we are skiers.

We would rather spend a couple of more hours driving through pretty scenery than along a boring interstate that just stretches on for miles. We have some pretty twisty mountains where we live, so that doesn't bother us at all.

Thanks again to all.

Lynda

We really enjoyed going to the top of Pike's Peak. We drove and really enjoyed it but others really like taking the cog railway. It's more expensive and takes more time out of your day, though because you have to stay on top a while. It only takes about 30 minutes to look at the view. There isn't anything else to do there but buy souvenirs and eat something in the snack bar.

I-70 is a very scenic interstate--never boring. It's even pretty twisty in spots, if you decide to go that way.