Lady and a Van

“You can have all the money in the world, but there’s one thing you will never have, a dinosaur.”

~ Homer Simpson

I’m always on the lookout for new places. Some I come across by coincidence and some I find with Google Maps, thanks to a keyword search.

This place was a combination of both. I was searching for ruins, but dinosaurs came up instead, so I was like “I better look into that!”

I’ve been “tricked” by Google Maps a few times; meaning an amazing place pops up, I set my coordinates and when I get there the place doesn’t really exist or it’s not accessible because it’s on private land. This can get a tad frustrating when I drive hundreds of miles to see something, so now I confirm the place exists before I leave. But that doesn’t ensure a smooth adventure either and this trip was a perfect example of that.

When the first mention of dinosaur came up, it was on an “Official Scenic Historic Marker” sign at the Clayton, New Mexico Visitor Center. According to the sign, it’s “One of the best dinosaur track sites in the world …” and “More than 500 fossilized footprints, made by at least eight kinds of dinosaurs, are visible …”. What?!? Say no more I’m in!!

I mean, 500 real dinosaur tracks!!  I had yet to see one left in the exact spot it was made, so the thought of seeing up to 500, well I was sold!! I didn’t need to look into it anymore, I set my GPS for the visitor center and we were off!! 

We were in Orlando, Kansas and the GPS said it would take about 6 hours to get there so we would arrive around eleven am. This left plenty of time to stop along the way, while leaving enough time (and sunlight) to see the tracks.

I’m not sure what the exact time was when we arrived but it was sometime around 3:30 because I took my first picture at 3:33 pm. Side note, I think the time of that pic is funny because 3 is kinda my number. Anyway, I was stoked we would have enough time to see everything. The only problem was I couldn’t see tracks or any signs for the tracks.

You see, here is where the hiccup came in, I was at the wrong place! I mean the simple fact that I was in the middle of town should have been a dead giveaway, but I followed the GPS. Turns out the GPS wasn’t the problem, it was me. I assumed (we know what that means) the tracks were at the visitor center because that’s where the sign was.

Don’t get me wrong, the visitor center was cool and everything, but it isn’t why I came.  I’m not kidding when I say I frantically started searching for something that could tell me where the tracks were because I was losing daylight fast and I wanted to see them.  I especially wanted to see them now that there was a possibility I was going to miss out!!

After about two seconds I saw it! Right there; in plain English and the very first sentence, “…can be viewed at Clayton Lake State Park.” Crap, not sure how I missed that the first time but no worries I still have a little sunlight.

After what felt like a very long drive, I finally made it to the park and it was beautiful!!  It was pretty much deserted, but it was open.  I still had a little sunlight and the tracks were about half a mile away.  I was sooo excited!!

I decided to leave Elwood in the van; there were deer everywhere so he would slow me down and I had to move fast if I wanted to see anything.  I started jogging down the trail and then it hit me; if I hike this AND see the tracks, I’m walking back in pitch dark.  That did not sound like a good idea.  Never mind the fact I had no idea what kind of animals lived in the area, but I didn’t know if the park was deserted and if it wasn’t who was there and where.  Add in the stress of no cell service and a twenty-two-minute drive back to town if anything happened and yep, I talked myself out of going.  I was a total scaredy cat and I chickened out, got back in the van and drove 120 miles to Trinidad, Colorado …

I bet you’re wondering how I can possibly tell you about the park and the tracks if I drove to Colorado right?  Well, obviously I drove back silly 😊

When we got to Colorado, the rest stops had no overnight parking notices and that didn’t feel like much of a welcome.  The road signs said a winter storm was coming and I’m trying to avoid extreme cold and snow so that didn’t sound fun either. I was tired though, we stayed at the ‘no-overnight parking’ rest stop and as soon as we woke up, we were on our way back to the tracks!!

After one hundred and twenty miles, plus another twenty because I took a wrong turn somewhere, we were back!!  It was even more beautiful then the night before and I knew it was going to be well worth the drive.  

The landscape was amazing and looking out at the lake from above was breathtakingly beautiful.  I have to say this is the most beautiful spot I’ve been in New Mexico and it’s definitely in my favorites list for the country.

When you come to the park, before you go through the gates, there is a small parking area to the left to take in the view of the lake and I highly recommend you do this.  After that you’ll travel down a windy road which will bring you to the camp sites and tracks parking lot.  From what I could tell, there were plenty of places to see and enjoy but we spent the whole day at the tracks because I couldn’t tear myself away, so we didn’t “experience” the rest of the park. 

There’s a small fee for the park, a day pass is $5 per vehicle (totally worth it!!) and an annual pass is $40.  They have a ton of campsites with prices ranging from $8-14 depending on the style (primitive, developed and developed with electric).  For the camping/hiking/fishing/nature loving enthusiasts they offer an annual camping permit, $180 for New Mexico residents and $225 for out-of-state residents.

Full Disclosure: Looks like there may be additional add ons, depending on your situation, so I recommend you check out the pricing before you go.

If you ask me these prices are more then fair considering what the park has to offer. And, if you’re anything like me this place will get your imagination going!!  The entire time I was there all I could do was imagine a different space and time with dinosaurs roaming around, drinking the water and eating the leaves.  Can you imagine it? Oh wait, you probably can’t because I haven’t shown you any pics yet, see below.

Now that I’ve gotten all my jokes out of the way, I bet you’re finally ready to hear about what the park has to offer and see some pics right?  Here goes …

What can you do?

• Hike
  • The hike to the dinosaur tracks is amazing!! 
  • There are areas along the way where you can climb down to the water and just chill.  There’s a bench about halfway through where you can rest or just sit back and admire the landscape.  Once you get to the area I like to call “The Visitor Knowledge Center” you can read all about dinosaurs and be that much smarter!  After that you’ll take a few stairs to either walk with the dinosaurs (imagination helpful but not necessary) or go to the cliffside to chill and admire how truly amazing this place is.  If you choose to see the tracks first, make sure you don’t forget about the cliffside.
• Walk with Dinosaurs
  • There is a wooden walkway around the tracks so you can walk with the dinosaurs and learn about their history.  Okay, okay, so you aren’t reeaally walking with the dinosaurs but figuratively speaking you are, I think that’s the word. 
  • What I mean is this place really brings out your imagination, it’s so easy to imagine them walking around when you’re looking at their tracks and reading on their history. 
  • I can’t lie, some of the “tracks” I was like “is that really a dinosaur track” but I’m not gonna argue with the paleontologists since they do that for a living.  Other tracks were so obvious that I could totally imagine what it must have looked like.  Like I said, an imagination is helpful here but with the actual tracks and dinosaur pictures in front of you it’s not totally necessary.   
• Enjoy Nature
  • The area is absolutely beautiful, and for the most part has been left untouched.  I think this makes it even more amazing. There aren’t many places left with this much space, you get a panoramic view and left in their most natural state! When I find it, I really appreciate it.  Have I mentioned how much I love nature? 
• Camping
  • As I mentioned above the place was deserted and because of the distance from civilization and the lack of cell service I wasn’t comfortable spending the night.  Had I been with at least one other person, I definitely would have stayed.  So, I can’t really speak on the camping per say but I can tell you what I saw.  There were plenty of campsites with amazing views and the area was clean. Personally, I think the campsites are closer than I prefer but I wouldn’t let that stop me from camping here if I had someone with me.  Note: I didn’t look for a bathhouse so if this is important to you, you may want to call to confirm they have it before you go. 
• Fishing
  • I think you need a license to fish and you definitely need a pole, since we had neither fishing wasn’t an option BUT there were signs everywhere talking about the lake being ‘Trophy Bass water’ so you fisherman/fisherwomen may want to check it out.

Now that I’ve shared a few tidbits on the park let me drop a little knowledge, I learned from the sites:

Did you know the ocean used to run through the United States?!?

If you did, you might be a genius!!

Over a million years ago the ocean ran through the US and it was called the Western Interior Seaway!! I’m not sure why, but I had to look that up to determine it meant the ocean.

Anyway, the seaway (ocean) extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic and when the dinosaurs walked along the shoreline they would step in the soft sand and that’s how their tracks were left. I think it’s amazing how they were preserved and discovered 💕

Fun Dinosaur Facts:

• “New Mexico is dinosaur Country”
• The first dinosaurs appeared 225 million years ago in the Triassic Period.
• The skeletons from the earliest known dinosaurs aren’t much larger than a vulture. 
• The tracks located at Clayton Lake State Park are from dinosaurs that lived during the Cretaceous Period which was 145-166 million years ago.
• Dinosaurs had life spans ranging from 15 to 300 years.  The average T-Rex lived 15-16 years and the long necks lived for 300.
• Dinosaurs became extinct through a series of events ranging from a large meteorite strike to climate change from volcanic activity.   
• Birds are modern day dinosaurs

I’m going to wrap this up shortly but before I do I want to touch on one last thing specific to the park and my heart.

The grasslands around Clayton Lake used to be home to huge bison (buffalo) herds that roamed the Great Plains. I’m not sure why they left or if any efforts are being made to bring them back but I seriously hope so!

I mean this place is huge!! It’s my understanding there is significant difficulty getting the herds back to their pre-slaughter numbers due to available land to roam. Each bison needs about 3 acres to survive properly. Seems to me there is space here to make conservation an option so again I hope they are looking into it.

Note: There are cattle in the pastures that surround the park so you can’t have dinosaurs and you can’t have bison, but you can watch some pretty cattle. 

Hopefully I’ve kept your attention until now and if not you aren’t reading this anyway!!

Told you I’m hilarious!!

Anyway, to wrap up my really long post, we spent almost two days here; the first day we missed the tracks because of sunlight issues and the next day we drove back because there was no way I was missing out on the experience. I’m so glad we went back, and I highly recommend you check this place out!! Especially if you’re into nature, history, dinosaurs, camping or fishing.

P.S. I’m totally a person that likes to know how I’m doing so if you like this post, please like it. If you have some constructive criticism to give, please give it. I’m open to any feedback that will help me improve my stories 😉

P.P.S. I really enjoy sharing my stories, pictures and travels with you so I hope you enjoy them as well.

Until next time, PEACE!!