This is Dale. If you arrive in the windswept, Martian looking landscape of northern Arizona at the Moenave Dinosaur Tracks site Dale is most likely to greet you as you drive in.
If you have ever seen a movie that says ‘based on a true story’, and thoroughly enjoyed it even though you know parts were embellished a bit you will love taking a tour of the dinosaur tracks with Dale.
There is no set fee, he just says ‘follow me’, and takes off through the desert chattering away with lots of details about the tracks. (for what it is worth they are indeed real dinosaur tracks, and believed by many to be some of the most important in the country).
As soon as you go down the small hill you see them everywhere.
We continued chasing after Dale trying to keep up and hear what he was saying, Some seemed a bit far fetched, but much is accurate. Is this a fossil that is being exposed?
Dale explains to us that in their culture they won’t dig up, or try and preserve anything so eventually it will all wear away.
For the scientific facts (thanks to the internet) – This is known as the Moenave Formation. It is a layer that sits on the Triassic Chinle Formation, part of Mesozoic rocks. There are dinosaur footprints all over the place here, as well as other nearby locales.
After chasing Dale for about 15-20 minutes we headed back.
We arrived back at the parking lot with a row of small stands. Dale informs us that no payment is necessary but reading before we arrived it is obvious that such a colorful story and tour is worthy of payment.
Afterward we checked out some of the stands. Overall a great way to spend 45 minutes in the Northern Arizona desert.
RDZ Photography 