With Spring Break upon us, Vietnamese exchange students Nga Le, Duy Bui, Tra Nguyen accompanied me for a long weekend of adventuring which culminated in a highlight visit of Dinosaur National Monument, a vast sea of rock and color sprawling across northeastern Utah and on into northwestern Colorado.  With a little bit of trepidation, we conjoined the Sound of Silence and Desert Voices trails  into a 5-mile “route” through the brushed red sandstone bluffs and washes of the desert.  We saw not one soul on this cool, sunny day.  Instead, we were greeted with distant vistas of the Green River and Split Mountain, as we rhythmically chugged up and down the badlands.

Afterward, we drove along the Tour of Tilted Rocks road and ended up visiting the haunting past of Josie Morris, strolling around her homestead cabin and abandoned orchards.  We also stopped on our drive to view intricate petroglyphs, originating 1,000 years ago from the Fremont people.

A fitting end to the day was a personal, private tour of the incredible Dinosaur Quarry Exhibit Hall, courtesy of Ranger Tiffany.  Here, hundreds of 150 million year old fossil bones from dinosaurs are still encased in a rock wall intersecting through the building; you can even touch them.

I’m so glad to have visited this special place with some special friends.  Enjoy this moment, for this moment is your life.