What's in a name? In Dinosaur National Monument, there's much more than what's in the name alone. This guide to the Tilted Rocks is a brief look at the Monument's diversity of sights and stories. Allow about 1 1/2 to 2 hours for this 22 mile round trip; this is time to drive at a leisurely pace and to get out now and then for a better view. If you have more time, there are suggestions for further walks or hikes in this area, as well as other parts of the Monument to visit.
Protect yourself and your Monument. Please drive carefully, and stop only in parking areas or where there is ample space on the shoulder. Don't drive off the road, as this scars the land and could also strand your vehicle. The route includes a 2 mile stretch of unpaved road, which may be inadvisable for travel in wet weather.
Please remember that a national monument is a home for all plants and animals, and take care while you are a guest in it. Remember too that you share this land and its resources with everyone; leave all rocks, flowers, artifacts and other objects in place just as you first see them.
For a picnic, you are welcome to use either Split Mountain or Green River Campground (the latter has more shade), or the tables near the Josie Morris Cabin at the end of the road. Drinking water is limited. Fires may be built only in the fire grates in the campgrounds.
Begin your tour from either the Dinosaur Quarry or the Summer Visitor Center, depending on where you are parked. At the first stop sign, turn left toward the campgrounds, and watch for the numbered posts on the roadside, beginning one mile from the stop sign.
(Mile and kilometers listed at each stop are cumulative.)
One of the Monument's oldest known sites of human life lies just across the road. Six feet below the present floor of the "Swelter Shelter" (named by the researchers who excavated it in the heat of summer), projectile points were found that may date from as long ago as 4,000 to 7,000 BC. Little is known of their long-vanished makers, who are now called simply the Desert Culture.
The pictographs (paintings) and petroglyphs (scratched or carved designs) on the shelter's walls are not quite so ancient. They were probably made about 1,000 years ago by the people of the Fremont Culture (named for the Fremont River in southern Utah), whose rock art appears on many cliffs and canyon walls, including more sites farther along this road. These drawings are very fragile - do not touch them.
Turn left on the road to Split Mountain Campground for the next three stops on the tour.
To continue the tour, drive down the hill, park and walk to the boatramp. There are exhibits here, and during summer afternoons you can watch river runners unpacking their boats.
Return up the same road and turn left at the stop sign.
For a closer look at the Split Mountain area, the Desert Voices Nature Trail, beginning across the road from the campground parking lot, is a 2 mile, moderately strenuous loop. The best time to walk this trail is early morning or late afternoon, when it is cooler, colors are brighter, and wildlife may be more active.
For the ultimate view of the canyons, take a half-day trip up the Harpers Corner Scenic Drive, a paved road beginning at Monument Headquarters in Colorado. Roadside overlooks and a 2 mile nature trail give superb vistas of the Green and Yampa River canyons. Guide leaflets for both the road and trail are available at the Dinosaur Quarry and at Headquarters.
The influence of water is easy to see here. The native cottonwood trees shading the campground below you depend on the Green River, as do the irrigated crops in the privately owned field across the river. Just a short distance away from the river, sparse grasses, shrubs such as sagebrush and greasewood, and a few small juniper trees reveal the true desert nature of this land. Here, at about 5,000 feet elevation, rain and snow provide less than 10 inches of water a year, and plants that have so little to drink must conserve water or perish. (Cacti, although they are champion water-savers, are small and scarce here because few of them can tolerate the sub-zero winter temperatures.)
Although gold did not play a leading role in this area's history, the Green River itself did. Its canyons made the land so rugged that explorers and settlers largely bypassed the area - except for a handful who tried floating down the river, not always successfully. In recent years though, river-running has quickly grown into a popular sport, and now thousands of people delight in the whitewater that terrified earlier boaters such as William Ashley and John Wesley Powell.
Just beyond Placer Point, before the main road crosses the river, are exhibits about the role of fire in the desert.
"Turtle Rock" is the name most often suggested, but "Skull Rock" runs a close second. The many holes result from more rapid weathering of the weaker parts of the rock. This is Entrada Sandstone, the same type of stone which forms the arches in Arches National Park. Arches develop when such holes eventually penetrate the thin walls of the rock, but this outcrop is fairly thick - so you'll probably have to wait a few million years to see an arch here.
The left fork crosses Cub Creek, a spring fed stream that runs all year. Its channel may seem deep for such a small volume of water, but the creek is not always small. Occasional cloud bursts can swell it to a muddy, roaring torrent, and it is then that the creek erodes its banks most rapidly - and sometimes cuts right through the road as well.
Like those at Swelter Shelter, these drawings were probably made by the Fremont people about 1,000 years ago. Using sharp tools, they pecked away the dark desert varnish," a natural stain on the rock surface, to reveal the light-colored sandstone
beneath. Many of the designs, such as bighorn sheep and other animals, are easily
recognizable, but their meaning is not. Was this religious art, or a written
language, or just something to fill idle moments? No one knows.
One thing that the petroglyphs do tell us is that their makers did not have to spend
all of their time struggling to survive. With the reliable water supply of Cub Creek,
they could settle in small village groups and grow crops to supplement the foods
the hunted and gathered. They could take the time to create artwork that, whatever
its purpose, would endure long after they were gone.
Three-tenths of a mile farther, watch for the last group of petroglyphs on this road,
on a low rock face on the left. Sometimes called the "three princesses," the figures
have the trapezoidal bodies, necklaces, and headdresses that are typical of Fremont representations of humans - but again, their true meaning remains a mystery to us.
Josie's homestead was about 1 mile by 1/2 mile, and on it she raised livestock,
field crops, vegetables, and fruits - without motor vehicles, electricity, or other
"modern conveniences." After her death in 1964, her land became part of Dinosaur
National Monument, preserving a spot where the "old West" isn't so old at all.
The steep mass of Split Mountain forms a backdrop to Josie's home. This rock is
Weber Sandstone, another ancient dune formation, in this case, even older than dinosaurs. Erosion has cut deeply into the rock in places, forming narrow canyons
with nearly vertical walls. Josie used two of these box canyons - the one by the
parking area and the next one to the east - as corrals. She simply fenced the narrow open ends, and let the canyon walls confine her stock. The canyons also provided most of Josie's water supply, channeling the runoff from rains and releasing groundwater
in the form of springs.
A short walk would make a pleasant conclusion to your journey before you return
over the same road. You can stroll right into the first box canyon from the parking area, or you can follow the path past the canyon and other buildings for about half a mile
into Hog Canyon. The canyon floors offer fairly level, easy walking, and have shade
even at midday. Please note: you should not try scrambling up the cliffs
and canyon walls, which are hazardous due to their steepness, loose rocks, and sudden drop-offs.
Published in cooperation with the National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, for the benefit of visitors to Dinosaur National Monument, Utah-Colorado.
© 1993 Dinosaur Nature Association
1291 E. Highway 40,
Vernal, UT 84078