Dinosaur Valley State Park 8/2001

When: August 3-5, 2001

Crew: Me

Summary: Despite the August heat, I drove down to Dinosaur Valley State Park on Friday night, and spent the night in a water/electric campsite. After parking at my camp site, I took a short hike over to take a look at Dinosaur Track Site #2.

The next morning, I drove over to track sites 1 and 4 and looked at the dinosaur tracks there. Then I made reservations for camp site #7 in the park office and hiked out of the Cedar Brake Trailhead into the north primitive area, along the Outer Ridge Trail. The trail wasn't very well marked and I couldn't find the campsite, so I hiked up to site #4 and set up camp. I grabbed some empty water bottles and hiked back down to the office to tell them I had moved.

I hiked back up along the Ridge Trail, and did some exploring around my camp. Some park rangers came through on four-wheelers to make sure I wasn't going to start any fires. I had been feeling a little dehydrated all day, even though I'd drank over a gallon of water since starting out that morning. The water I had left would have held me until morning if I'd eaten a dry dinner, but I was intent on macaroni and cheese, so about six o'clock I loaded up my empty bottles and hiked back down to the trailhead to fill them. This time, I took the Denio Creek Trail, and got to hike along a very pretty dry creek bed. This trail passed the prettiest scenery I had seen all day.

I got back to camp with my water and had two delicious helpings of macaroni and cheese as I watched the sun set over the ridge. The next morning I packed up camp and hiked down the trail that follows Buckeye Creek back to the Cedar Brake Trailhead.

It was an enjoyable weekend, and my first solo backpacking trip. The dinosaur tracks were neat, and the scenery was pretty. There were no breathtaking vistas or grandiose peaks, but the land was beautiful in its own right and worth visiting.

Other: Dinosaur Valley State Park Waypoints