Last weekend my dog Sparky and I finally made it to the nation’s (and perhaps the world’s) largest concentration of dinosaur tracks located at the bottom of Picket Wire Canyon in southeast Colorado. I learned about Picket Wire Canyon while researching the very impressive and accessible dinosaur tracks near Clayton, New Mexico for my upcoming book Wandering in the Clear Light of New Mexico.
This is only a small portion of the trackway. All of those holes are dinosaur tracks.
The Clayton and Picket Wire trackways are only 50 miles or so apart, as the crow flies, from each other, and both of them date back to around 100 million years ago or so during the Cretaceous geologic period. At that time much of the nation’s interior was covered by an inland sea. And dinosaur trackways are found in intermittent locations along what was the western edge of the sea all the way from Texas to Colorado.
This is the extent of the Inland Sea. Map courtesy of the National Park Service.
Picket Wire Canyon is located south of La Junta, Colorado in the Comanche National Grasslands. The canyon’s actual name is Purgatoire, but English speaking settlers found the French word Purgatoire too difficult to pronounce and came up with Picket Wire as an alternative.
As for the nation’s National Grasslands, they are the result of a New Deal-era program to buy out and relocate dusted-out farmers devastated by the 1930s Dust Bowl. Southeastern Colorado along with northeastern New Mexico, southwestern Kansas, and both of the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles were the heart of the 1930s Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl happened because of misguided attempts by settlers to grow wheat in a semi-arid grassland best suited for bison.
The Heart of the 1930s Dust Bowl. Map courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
While the Clayton trackway is easily accessible, the Picket Wire trackway requires a 5.5 mile hike each way. By the time you finish wandering around, you’ll be looking at a 12 -13 mile hike. If you’re okay with the distance, the hike is not particularly difficult. But with no cover whatsoever, this is hike that you don’t want to do in the middle of the summer. The U.S. Forest Service (who manages the National Grasslands) does offer guided vehicle tours during the spring and fall.
Here’s a link to the Forest Service site with driving instructions and information on auto tours (please note that even though WordPress believes the following link to be broken – it is valid) – Click Here
Sparky and I chose to walk and found the walk to be wonderful. We couldn’t have picked a better day. It was just above freezing when we started at 8:45am in the morning, but by the time we reached the dinosaur tracks at a little over two hours later it was almost 60°. And with no clouds above us and only three other hikers along the way, it was a completely quiet Sunday and absolutely perfect.
Here’s what we saw on our hike:
The drive to the trailhead on unpaved roads went through typical Great Plains grassland.
The information board had several warning about HEAT. This is not a summer place for a hike.
Trail began in juniper grasslands.
And quickly descended 300 feet into the canyon.
As you can see the canyon is quite pleasant.
As you can also see, the trail is perfect for bikes and horses.
As you walk along, you’ll see that people once lived in the canyon.
There are plenty of little side trails leading to the canyon walls if you want to look for petroglyphs. You can see this petroglyph right from the trail. I’m not sure if this is a snake or if some was trying to map the meanders of the Purgatoire River.
You’ll pass the remains of an old Hispanic church and graveyard.
When you get close to the dinosaur tracks, you’ll pass an exact replica of a dinosaur scapula that was excavated from the canyon. That bone is almost eight feet long!
And when you reach the trackway, you can start wandering around to check them out. The Forest Service does have information signs to help you understand what you are seeing.
The round tracks are from a Brontosaurus.
While the three toed tracks are from an Allosaurus.
That walking stick is close to four feet long. These tracks are huge!
There are more tracks on the other side of the river. But with all the ice, I decided not to cross it. Unfortunately, I left my drone in the car. If there’s a place begging for a drone shot, this is it.
With that, I was more than happy to wander on my side of the river.
As I hope you can see, this is a very cool place, and more than worth the effort to check out.
February 3, 2024 at 7:26 pm
So sad I am so far from the place. It is an amazing view/spot,,,whatever. It is a nice place to explore. Hope someday, somehow I can reach the place.
February 3, 2024 at 8:21 am
Amazing! I had no idea…. Thank You!
February 3, 2024 at 1:19 am
Thank you so much for sharing your amazing adventure and experience.
It was awesome. I feel myself at your side traveling.