Dino-might on display

The bluffs and hills of the mountain-biking hub town of Moab were barren and as red as a tan, save a few juniper trees and clumps of rabbit brush.

As I hiked to a flat stretch of sandstone, I saw them — bigger and more clearly defined than I had expected: dinosaur tracks.

I ran my fingers along the curve of the claw and pressed my palm inside the hubcap-sized impression.

It was a creepy feeling, occupying the same spot as an SUV-sized lizard.

Fossilised monstrosity

When the giant carnivore, probably an allosaurus, walked across this spot about 150 million years ago, the landscape would've been a tropical environment on the shores of an inland sea, lush with ferns, cycads, conifers and ginkgo trees.

Here the beast's feet sank into a sandbar. Over time, seismic forces buried, solidified and then pushed that sandbar to the surface, retaining in astonishing detail the prints of that long-extinct monster.

A happy geological fluke has made Utah, US, one of the world's best spots for a dinosaur hunt.

Throughout the rest of the US, this fossil-rich layer of sedimentary rock is buried under prairies and forests.

But in the badlands of Utah, the stratum rests near the surface, even along hiking trails such as this.

I consulted Utah's top palaeontologists on the best way to make a four-day road trip to see the state's dinosaur exhibits. They told me the best time to visit is now, in this era of astounding discoveries.

Thanks to improved technology and exploding interest in the field, palaeontologists are digging up new dinosaur species around the world at a rate of 10 to 20 each year.

Utah's quarries have been at the forefront of this trend, with discoveries such as a strange duck-billed herbivore and a new horned quadruped, besides evidence that some dinosaurs were fish-eaters.

It was during the month of September that I drove the length and breadth of Utah — 978 miles. Here are some favourite stops.

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St George Dinosaur Discovery Centre

A few years ago, Sheldon Johnson, a retired optometrist, was prepping land for resale when he spotted something in the soil.

He uncovered thick mudstone slabs imprinted with thousands of dinosaur prints, including skin impressions and tracks from what palaeontologists believe was the lanky, fast-moving coelophysis of the early Jurassic period.

Johnson notified palaeontologists and city officials, who later built a museum around the 200-million-
year-old impressions.

Among the exhibits is the world's largest slab of stone containing dinosaur prints, weighing more than 26 tonnes.

From bones, palaeontologists learn about the size, anatomy and diet of the dinosaurs.

From track prints, experts get clues on how they sat, ran, moved and hunted.

Andrew C. Milner, the city's palaeontologist, believes scratch marks on several slabs suggest some dinosaurs swam in the shallow waters pursuing fish.

he drive: From Las Vegas, drive two hours along Interstate 15 to St George, Johnson Farm, in the southwest corner of Utah.

The vitals: Open 10am to 6pm Monday through Saturday.

Admission: $5 (Dh18)for adults, $2 (Dh7) for children. 2180 E Riverside Drive, St George.

Visit www.dinotrax.com for more information.

Mill Canyon Dinosaur Trail and Copper Ridge Dinosaur Trackway

I drove 13 miles north of Moab to a hiking trail on the US Bureau of Land Management territory in Mill Canyon.

There, exposed to the elements were dinosaur bones, black, grey and grainy, like wood.

The disjointed bones jutting out of a sandstone shelf were the vertebrae of a 20-tonne camasaurus.

A diamond-shaped bone embedded in rock was the femur of an allosaurus, a smaller cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex.

There are interpretive markers on sites but not many road signs.

Damaging or removing fossils from state or federal land without permit is illegal.

The nearby Copper Ridge Dinosaur Trackway was easier to find. After hiking from a parking lot, I came to several 150-million-year-old prints on a flat rock path, as clear as if they had been made that very week.

The three-toed allosaurus prints cross the path diagonally but the bigger prints, probably of an apatosaurus, seem to make a sharp right turn.

The drive: Drive Interstate 70 across Utah from St George to Moab. Don't rush past chocolate hoodoos, sherbet-coloured mesas and the spectacular vista of Castle Valley at a rest area near mile marker 104.

The vitals: Both track sites are pen year round. For Mill Canyon, take the US Highway 191 north from Moab for 13 miles, turn left on Mill Canyon Road after mile marker 141.

After reaching a T in the dirt road, turn left and look for a gravel parking lot and interpretive sign.

For Copper Ridge, drive past mile marker 148, along US 191, about 23 miles north of Moab, turn right on the next dirt road and follow the signs for 2 miles to a gravel parking lot.

Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry

In the 1930s, near Cleveland, about 30 miles south of Price, palaeontologists uncovered the most dense collection of fossils in the world — more than 12,000 bones in a quarter of an acre.

More surprising was the mystery of why there were so many bones in one spot, most of juvenile and adolescent carnivores such as the allosaurus.

Fewer than 30 per cent were herbivores and palaeontologists have been unable to find an intact skull.

Some suggest the land was a bog that trapped herbivores and attracted predators. But that doesn't explain a preponderance of predator bones.

It looked like a mass grave,except for the fossilised dinosaur egg found in 1987.

The drive: To reach the quarry from Cleveland, drive 12 miles along unpaved roads. A four-wheel drive vehicle is recommended.

The vitals: Open 10am to 5pm Monday through Saturday and noon to 5pm Sunday from Memorial Day to Labor Day.

Open Friday through Sunday in autumn and spring. From November to mid-March, the quarry is closed.

Admission: $5 (Dh18) for adults. Children under 16 are admitted free.

Take Utah Highway 10 south to the Cleveland/Elmo turnoff and follow the signs. For information, visit www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/price/recreation/quarry.html

BYU Earth Science Museum, Provo

Brigham Young University Earth Science Museum is a research centre.

Students behind a glass partition clean bones and the dinosaur displays are magnificent.

Highlights include the skeleton of a torvosaurus, a predator with teeththat hang like stalactites. Bones of museum skeletons are reproductions because fossils are too fragile to mount.

One fossil under glass is the 4-foot-tall leg bone of a Utahraptor, the nasty larger cousin of the turkey-sized velociraptor.

The drive: Through Manti-La Sal National Forest along US Highway 6.

The vitals: Open 9am to 5pm Monday through Friday.
Admission: Free but donations are accepted.

Museum of Ancient Life

This place brings the dinosaur era to life, complete with spooky lighting and sound effects.

The 86,000-square-foot museum — the world's largest collection of life-size dinosaur skeleton casts — is part of a 700-acre commercial development that includes gardens, golf greens, shops, animal park, farmers market and more.

Thanksgiving Point museum has benefited from the backing of Alan Ashton, co-founder of WordPerfect.

The $20 million (Dh74 million) museum was built in 2000. A two-storey-tall torvosaurus is the museum's doorman.

Home to more than 60 complete dinosaur skeletons, the museum is divided into four sections, each representing a period of Earth's history: the Precambrian Age, when Earth was a bubbling cauldron of single-cell critters, and the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

The sounds of prehistoric birds echo from hidden speakers. The supersaurus, one of the world's largest dinosaurs, stretches 110 feet from head to tail.

The neck of the supersaurus is so long it extends into the next hall.

The drive: From Provo to Lehi, follow Interstate 15 past industrial warehouses.

The vitals: Open 10am to 8pm Monday through Saturday, except Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Admission: $10 (Dh4) for adults; $8 (Dh29) for children. Admission plus a 3D dinosaur battle movie: $15 (Dh55) for adults; $12 (Dh44) for children. (www.thanksgivingpoint.com)

Field House of Natural History

In northeastern Utah, the visitors' centre at Dinosaur National Monument in Jensen is one of the state's premier fossil-viewing sites.

Unfortunately, the centre was closed indefinitely in 2006. I headed instead to nearby Vernal to see the Utah Field House of Natural History.

The star of the museum is a 90-foot-long diplodocus skeleton. The field house was designed as an educational centre, with hands-on exhibits for kids.

A 15-minute movie explained the Morrison Formation — the fossil-rich sedimentary layer that stretches 600,000 square miles from Canada to the American West.

The drive: Drive about seven miles outside Vernal along US 191 to Red Fleet State Park and dinosaur tracks on the northern shore of the lake.

These prints, at the end of a 1.5-mile hike, are not as distinct as the impressions on Copper Ridge but are impressive.
The vitals: Open 9am to 5pm daily, except holidays.

Admission: $6 (Dh22) for adults, $3 (Dh11) for seniors and children. Visit www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/price/recreation/quarry.html