After visiting the diverse landscapes of Dinosaur National Monument once, national parks traveler Mikah Meyer knew he had to come back. In addition to the site\u2019s ancient land formations and dinosaur fossils, the massive park \u2014 which spreads across the states of Utah and Colorado \u2014 is also home to a river canyon made up of unique rock formations. During his first visit this past summer, Mikah hiked along \u201csome of the most diverse and expansive views of my entire journey so far," he said. \u201cIt was incredible. I have never seen a river canyon this close to massive valleys that were shifted upward that looked like giant ski slopes of lush green grass that are also right next to white snowcapped mountains.\u201d After a year, traveling to 160 national parks around the country, that landscape was just one of the reasons he found the site so compelling. Wall of bones Another reason was the area\u2019s vast deposits of fossilized dinosaur bones, many of which are still visible, embedded in the rocks. Through a series of exhibits, visitors like Mikah get to see \u2014 and feel \u2014 just how massive the giant animals were. Examining a huge dinosaur claw, Mikah noted how sharp it felt to the touch. "That would not feel good if that ripped into you," he said. \u201cThey found tons and tons of dinosaur bones that are now in museums from New York to D.C. to my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska,\u201d he added. A river runs through it After his experiences on land, where he had a bird\u2019s eye view of the panoramic vistas, Mikah returned to the park a couple of months later, to see it from a different angle\u2026 rafting on the Green River. \u201cWhat really struck me the first time I came to Dinosaur National Monument was these impressive unique rock features. And now to be able to see them up close from the water was incredible,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019ll be rafting along and suddenly you see these layers, and they\u2019re vertical. It looks like something that nature couldn\u2019t have created because it\u2019s perpendicular to what we\u2019re used to seeing the earth layers look like,\u201d he described. Over the course of several days, he discovered a wide variety of formations to explore. He describes the geology at the intersection of the Green and Yampa Rivers for example, as \u201cparticularly awesome.\u201d Waves of rock \u201cYou can see these kind of pancake-like features where these large maroon and brown boulders are all smashed together,\u201d he noted. But as he continued on his river journey he noticed \u201ca lot more varied geology,\u201d with lighter sandstone formations. Mikah was particularly intrigued by a series of rock ripples that he saw along the shoreline. He described the sedimentary structures as \u201cdeposits of rock that were upturned and now make this curve shape that we see shooting up from the river to the sky." Loosey goosey In addition to the park's natural beauty and historic artifacts, there was a surprising highlight to Mikah's river adventure. From the beginning of his journey, he and his tour group were joined by an unlikely fellow traveler… a wild goose that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere\u2026 \u201cI noticed there was this little goose that was hanging out on the beach… and then we got in the boat and we started floating down the river and this goose was swimming right up next to the boat,\u201d Mikah explained. \u201cAbout five or 10 minutes later, the goose was still with us,\u201d he said. \u201cSo my buddy Tom jokingly said, 'I think he's just going to come along for the journey. We should name him. Let's call him George.'\u201d George continued to hang out with Mikah and his group for several days. He followed them on water, on hikes, and even settled in with them at their campsite overnight. \u201cIt became very apparent that George the Goose had attached himself to us; thought he was either one of our group or we were his new flock,\u201d Mikah noted. \u201cWherever we went, George the Goose was going.\u201d Right up until the very end. \u201cWe loaded up in the van, and we start driving away, and poor George the Goose starts to run after us. And eventually I saw him stop and just kinda look around and I think at that point he realized we had left him.\u201d \u201cWithout a doubt, all of us were touched and moved by George the Goose,\u201d he added. Dinosaur National Monument is now among Mikah's top five favorite parks. He wishes the site had an official national park designation so it would attract more visitors. \u201cIt is a National Park Service site, but its official name is Dinosaur National Monument which I'm guessing people see the name and it doesn't sound as incredible as Rocky Mountain National Park nearby, or Arches National Park that are those big 59 ones that are recognized,\u201d he said. \u201cIt really is a special place that seems to be a hidden gem that I hope other people will get a chance to explore.\u201d With, or without a goose. Mikah invites you to follow him on his epic journey by visiting him on his website MikahMeyer.com, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After visiting the diverse landscapes of Dinosaur National Monument once, national parks traveler Mikah Meyer knew he had to come back. In addition to the site\u2019s ancient land formations and dinosaur fossils, the massive park \u2014 which spreads across the states of Utah and Colorado \u2014 is also home to a river canyon made up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toptrendingnews.co\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}