The Kanab Dinosaur Tracksite hike is a brief however attention-grabbing stroll into deep time, the place a mild path leads throughout slickrock to a sandstone slab stamped with fossilized dinosaur tracks. Simply minutes from city but set in opposition to vast desert views, the trail blends the simplicity of an off-the-cuff stroll with the marvel of standing within the footsteps of creatures that roamed the earth almost 200 million years in the past.
Trailhead elevation 5,085′
Do not miss the quickest manner up via the crevice
Mountaineering the Kanab Dinosaur Tracks Path
It’s our third day in Kanab, and after an early stroll out to the Sand Caves Path, I resolve to swing by the dinosaur tracks—a website I’ve visited greater than as soon as earlier than. Because it’s solely a pair miles south and proper alongside my path to our cabin, it makes for an ideal detour. I pull into the small, unmarked gravel lot at 37.083487, -112.538963 (Google Maps will take you to the fallacious spot) and set off immediately.
The tracks sit on high of the formation immediately beside the lot, and whereas the hike is brief, it helps to know the place you’re going. From the parking space, I take a faint, unsigned path to the fitting, skirting previous a extra apparent path that runs parallel to the rocks.
Only a few hundred ft in, I veer left and climb steeply towards the cliffs—expertise tells me that if I’d stayed on the road-side path, I’d be wandering round for half an hour.
Quickly I attain a flat ledge and slip via a slim crevice within the cliffs.
Past it, the trail forks left and proper, however from previous visits I do know probably the most direct route is straight up. After twenty ft, I spot a path marker and proceed larger, stopping halfway to catch my breath and take within the view of the tiny parking space beneath.
On the high, the tracks unfold out throughout the sandstone, every one outlined with small circles of stone.
Most are three-toed prints left by theropods—two-legged, meat-eating dinosaurs that will have ranged from human-sized to a lot bigger. A couple of counsel ornithopods, smaller plant-eaters that additionally walked on two legs. The fossils date again about 180 million years, when this land was a part of an enormous desert of dunes and shallow watering holes. Dinosaurs crossed damp sand, their steps hardened, and time preserved them till erosion uncovered the story once more.
Somebody has poured water into one the extra apparent prints to make it stand out—a standard trick for images however sadly one which accelerates erosion. A reminder of how fragile these traces of the previous actually are.
I launch my drone to get a couple of overhead photographs, recognizing the outdated route I as soon as took years in the past from a paved lot beneath. From up right here, it’s apparent why so many individuals by no means handle to search out the tracks.
On my manner down, I retrace my steps. Now that I know how, it’s solely a five-to-seven minute stroll, although I bear in mind the primary time I got here right here it took me almost an hour to puzzle out the path splits. At the moment, it’s a fast revisit—an historic chapter of prehistory resting simply outdoors of downtown Kanab.
