Echo Park: The Center of the Universe or the end? (Dinosaur VI)

What a fabulous month of Dinosaur Nat’l Monument and the surrounding area! Our friend Joe even spent 5 days with us (so we think he may have enjoyed the monument as well)…including multiple trail hikes. And one off-trail hike where I took us up an accidental “alternate route” as usual.

Joe was also able to experience Echo Park with us. Echo Park is a gem, and apparently “the center of the universe.” Why not?

Stopped by an old homestead and Walking Dead episodes flashed in my mind.

Usually I like to climb up high, but being in the canyon with wild tall rock walls was another experience. See the desert varnish drip down the smooth walls like chocolate sauce. Yum!

And the Whispering Cave, a natural air conditioned cave.

Looks a little like Georgia O’Keefe’s (non-flower) paintings of the desert inside.

We were the only three people in Echo Park…and could have been the entire world for that matter.

Steamboat Rock sits in the middle, near where the Yampa and Green Rivers converge…one dark green and the other milky. We walked up above the river and scared some mule deer into swimming across.

As usual…I never wanted to leave.

And so concludes our journey at Dinosaur Nat'l Monument.