Our first stop will be Dinosaur Ridge. Dinosaur Ridge is an area just off Hwy C-470 that have trace fossils in plain sight along the mountain side. Take I-70 East to exit 259 and take a left heading toward Red Rocks. Turn left onto CO-26/W Alameda Pkwy. End at 16831 W Alameda Pkwy Morrison. About 18 miles from Kipling and I-70

The Dinosaur Ridge area is one of the world's most famous dinosaur fossil areas. Several entire dinosaur skeletons were unearthed here and taken to eastern museums for exhibit. Some of the remains that were here include the largest "thunder lizard" known as Apatosaurus, better known as Brontosaurus. Some of other fossils that have been found here include; Diplodocus; Stegosaurus, the Colorado State Fossil; and Allosaurus. These animals lived during the Late Jurassic Epoch about 145 million years ago. This strata, known as the Morrison Formation is across a large part of the Rocky Mountain region. Many museums are now stocked with the fossils found in this area.

This pictures above shows trace fossils of dinosaurs that once roamed this area.
In the 1930s, during the construction of West Alameda Parkway, dinosaur tracks were discovered on the east side of Dinosaur Ridge in the 100-million year-old rocks of the Dakota Group, representing the Cretaceous Period. The tracks are those of Iguanodon-like plant-eating - or herbivorous - dinosaurs and ostrich-sized meat-eating - or carnivorous - dinosaurs. Recent research has revealed that these tracks represent only a small part of the extensive track-bearing beds that can be traced along the Colorado Front Range. Because this strata represents the shoreline sediments of an ancient seaway that was frequently trampled by dinosaurs, these beds have been called the "Dinosaur Freeway."

After the Morrison formation was deposited, the sea crept across this part of the continent creating a thin layer of river and beach sand, the Cretaceous Dakota sandstone, marks the sea's departure. You can walk along the beds of the Dakota sandstone at Dinosaur ridge and see footprints, ripple marks, and root patterns left by mongrove swamps. (Roadside Geology of Colorado P. 27)

This area where we took the picture is a trail that is located along the road while walking the Dinosaur Ridge road. We only hiked this trail for about 15 minutes and the views from here were fabulous.

Further up the road, we found this interesting

egg like looking rock. This is a concretion formed when mineral growth cemented sand grains around a central nucleus. Geologist aren't sure why this one had formed here.

We are searching for any signs of fossils in this shale along the mountainside. We found none, and even if we did, it is against the law to take any from this site.