The little town of Dinosaur, Colorado, has streets named for its famous residents: Brontosaurus Boulevard, Stegosaurus Freeway, Triceratops Terrace. It lies in the arid country of the far north-west corner of the state, just east of the Utah line, in the Uinta Basin, a land of red rock, juniper and dust. The surrounding hills are banded in pink, grey and rust, and the sky is huge. Rangely, about twenty-four kilometres east, is the nearest sizeable settlement and the practical place for fuel and supplies.
The town earned its name from the nearby Dinosaur National Monument, a vast tract of canyon country along the Green and Yampa rivers, where in 1909 the paleontologist Earl Douglass found a rich bed of dinosaur bones in the Utah side. The quarry, near Jensen, still shows a wall of fossils, hundreds of bones of long-necked sauropods embedded in a tilted sandstone face. The monument also protects spectacular river canyons, whose rapids attract rafting parties, and the Harpers Corner Scenic Drive, a long, high road that ends with a view down into the canyons of the Green and Yampa.
For riders, the Dinosaur Diamond is a long loop of highways across Colorado and Utah, linking fossil sites and old mining towns. The roads are mostly wide and open, with huge views, little traffic and long distances between services. Highway 64 runs between Dinosaur and Rangely, while Highway 40 heads west into Utah. Heat in summer is fierce, with temperatures well over thirty-five degrees, and winter brings snow and wind. Spring and autumn are the best seasons.
Carry water and extra fuel range; towns are far apart, and cell coverage is patchy. The sunsets across the desert are some of the best in the West, with the rock glowing in red and orange. Keep an eye out for deer, pronghorn and the occasional wandering cow. The visitor centre in the monument offers maps and a good introduction to the geology, and the night skies, far from city lights, are spectacularly full of stars.