We’ve made it to day 5 of another epic river adventure, well, a mini-epic, as this was our first river trip lasting less than two weeks. While it was wonderful, it was barely enough time to be fully lost in it all. Another great aspect of this brevity is that it means I’m on the last day I need to find something to write about while not having notes and idiotically waited nine years before tackling the last two days of our time on the Yampa and Green Rivers.
Could this be part of the Morgan Formation? I certainly don’t know, and unless I want to go raft the Yampa/Green Rivers again, I may never know, but at least I can take solace in the fact we’ve been immersed in this experience and have seen these things with our very own eyes. If we are in the Morgan Formation, also known as the Round Valley Limestone from the Pennsylvanian period, we’ve been traveling through rock layers that are between about 66 million and 300 million years old.
A bison petroglyph etched into the sandstone at Island Park. Learning more about the petroglyphs here in Dinosaur National Monument isn’t easy, but I did find out that there are many more we’ll never see as the park service doesn’t divulge their whereabouts, nor do they expose where ruins are due to vandalism. Think about this: there are those existing among us who obviously cannot steel petroglyphs nor take away an old ruin, which means they are protecting these sites from theft but from physical damage as we have people who are willing to invest the energy to go out of their way for the sake of attempting to destroy a history that might have been standing here for more than a thousand years. I can’t imagine what kind of degenerate that person might be or what their motivation is, but I definitely wish they didn’t exist.
We are heading to the exit on a fast track as lingering is about done.
I believe we are near the entrance of Split Mountain, named by John Wesley Powell here where the Green River slices over an uplifted anticline (folded rock layer). It will be the Split Mountain Boat Ramp a little further downriver, where this canyon adventure will come to an end.
Exitig Split Mountain. As I said, we are making tracks.
One more location to explore, but first, a quick group photo with everyone except the cameraman, that being me.
Just out of sight on the left is Split Mountain Beach and the boat ramp; after we cross the river, we’ll be leaving this all behind.
Exploring a small opening under a massive cliff face across the river from our takeout, this was our last stop before packing out and bringing the festivities to an end.