photo sharing and upload picture albums photo forums search pictures popular photos photography help login
Jerry Pillarelli | profile | all galleries >> Travel and Nature >> US Travel; by Trip, by State >> Utah >> Jurassic National Monument – Utah tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Jurassic National Monument – Utah

Images of Jurassic National Monument – Central Utah, taken in July 2019.

Jurassic National Monument, also known as The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry (CLDQ), was created in March of 2019 to protect one of the world’s densest collections of Jurassic era fossils primarily dominated by the presence of Allosaurus skeletons. Excavation began here in the 1920’s and has continued on and off ever since.

Of course my trip to this location began in March when I learned that the site was getting the National Monument designation so when I arrived in Utah I already knew that the new park was only open Thursday through Sunday. Parked in Torrey Utah, I set aside the Thursday of the week I was there to visit the new park and made the 130 mile trip over Utah roads, the last 13 of which was dirt. It was at the twelfth mile of that dirt road that I discovered that the park was actually open only on Fridays and Saturdays. I had not planned on doing any major hiking that day but I parked my car at the locked gate and set out on foot in the 95 degree heat to find the quarry; no way had I come all that way just to turn back because of a technicality like a locked gate, especially one I could easily fit under. So I walked, eventually coming to an area with several parked cars, tents pitched among the rocks and a very nice – closed – Visitor Center. I noticed a man walking into a building behind the visitor center and, not knowing where I was going, decided to follow him in hopes of getting some information on how to find the quarry itself. Turns out the building housed the quarry and the man was Paleontologist Steven Clawson from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Once we acquainted ourselves with each other he was kind enough to give me an overview of the work he and his team were doing which in short came down to his efforts to dispel the hypothesis that this was a ‘predator trap’ in favor of the idea that the remains found here were transported to the area via flooding events over time.

After asking several questions and unloading every fact I knew on the subject from my visits to such places as Waco National Monument (site of multiple Mammoths dying in a single flooding event) I shot some images of the quarry and hiked back to my car confident that I couldn’t have had a better experience if I had arrived here when the place was actually open; as always I’d rather be lucky than good…
Locked gate keeping me out of Jurassic National Monument
Locked gate keeping me out of Jurassic National Monument
Open secondary gate and high clouds over Jurassic National Monument
Open secondary gate and high clouds over Jurassic National Monument
Prickly Pear Cactus in Jurassic National Monument
Prickly Pear Cactus in Jurassic National Monument
Dinosaur mounted on the gate to Jurassic National Monument
Dinosaur mounted on the gate to Jurassic National Monument
Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry Visitor Center in Jurassic National Monument
Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry Visitor Center in Jurassic National Monument
Quarry buildings in Jurassic National Monument
Quarry buildings in Jurassic National Monument
Paleontologist Steve Clawson (left) and team work the quarry in Building 1 in Jurassic National Monument
Paleontologist Steve Clawson (left) and team work the quarry in Building 1 in Jurassic National Monument
Active quarry in Building 1 in Jurassic National Monument
Active quarry in Building 1 in Jurassic National Monument
Excavating Allosaurus bones in the Cleveland Lloyd-Dinosaur Quarry in Jurassic National Monument
Excavating Allosaurus bones in the Cleveland Lloyd-Dinosaur Quarry in Jurassic National Monument
Paleontologists in the Cleveland Lloyd-Dinosaur Quarry in Jurassic National Monument
Paleontologists in the Cleveland Lloyd-Dinosaur Quarry in Jurassic National Monument
Allosaurus bone in the Cleveland Lloyd-Dinosaur Quarry in Jurassic National Monument
Allosaurus bone in the Cleveland Lloyd-Dinosaur Quarry in Jurassic National Monument
Paleontologists work in the Cleveland Lloyd-Dinosaur Quarry in Jurassic National Monument
Paleontologists work in the Cleveland Lloyd-Dinosaur Quarry in Jurassic National Monument
Allosaurus bone at the Cleveland Lloyd-Dinosaur Quarry in Jurassic National Monument
Allosaurus bone at the Cleveland Lloyd-Dinosaur Quarry in Jurassic National Monument
Cast of an Allosaurus skull found in the quarry on display in Jurassic National Monument
Cast of an Allosaurus skull found in the quarry on display in Jurassic National Monument
Allosaurus foot cast on display in Jurassic National Monument
Allosaurus foot cast on display in Jurassic National Monument
Level of dinosaur deposits next to the active quarry in Jurassic National Monument
Level of dinosaur deposits next to the active quarry in Jurassic National Monument
View of the area excavated starting in 1920 in Jurassic National Monument
View of the area excavated starting in 1920 in Jurassic National Monument
Close up of a Pronghorn Antelope in Jurassic National Monument
Close up of a Pronghorn Antelope in Jurassic National Monument
Pronghorn Antelope on the prairie in Jurassic National Monument
Pronghorn Antelope on the prairie in Jurassic National Monument
Broken rocks in a dry stream bed in Jurassic National Monument
Broken rocks in a dry stream bed in Jurassic National Monument