Dinosaur Ridge: Walking a Tilted Slab of Deep Time Near Morrison

Just west of Morrison, the foothills rise in a long, sharp spine called the Dakota Hogback. Ancient mountain-building tipped those rock layers up on edge, and that tilt is the whole gift here: stone that once lay flat and buried now stands at your eye level along the road. In 1937, crews building West Alameda Parkway cut into the ridge and uncovered dinosaur footprints pressed into the rock. That accidental find became Dinosaur Ridge.

Walk it and you cross two chapters of deep time. One side holds more than 250 Cretaceous tracks, where you can still see where animals stepped through old shoreline mud. The other side exposes older Jurassic rock with dinosaur bones in it, near the spot where the first Stegosaurus fossils were described. It is also part of the Morrison-Golden Fossil Areas, a National Natural Landmark.

You can take the paved route on your own from sunup to sundown, or join a guided bus or walking tour to have the marked sites explained. There is a main visitor center and the Martin G. Lockley Discovery Center, plus a free weekend shuttle. The site is run by the nonprofit Friends of Dinosaur Ridge, so check their page for current hours, tour times, and shuttle details before you go: https://dinoridge.org/