Dinosaur Valley State Park, Glen Rose, TX

So, my Sweetie and I decided to take a short 3 day journey to camp at Dinosaur Valley State Park. Here, we put up our PuP and spent a couple of nights for our first camping trip of 2012.

The journey was uneventful as we drove most of the way on I-20. We eventually cut down and made our way through Stephenville before finally arriving at Glen Rose, TX, and DVSP. In mere moments, we had found our camping spot (the park was completely booked) and spent a few minutes trying to remember how to unhitch the camper!

Since we drove for more than 6 hours to get here, we were both pretty beat so, after a small meal of grilled, thick-cut lamp chops and oven baked macaroni and cheese, we spent a bit playing Gin rummy before finally hitting the sack. We both slept great even though my Sweetie tried to steal the blanket all night!

The next day we got ready to hike the trails! We got to the river and found out there was a whole bunch of water in that thar river and we're weren't equipped to cross it safely (seeing as I'm getting old and we didn't have any scuba gear with us). So, we didn't get to the other side of the Paxuley River. 

We did manage to see one dinosaur print even though the river was pretty high. Most of them were covered in too much water to see them. Sigh. And this park is famous for the dinosaur prints there.

Three kinds of dinosaur tracks occur in the Glen Rose formation (source: DVSP brochure).

1. Acrocanthosaurus - The most common are three-toed, giant bird-like imprints, measuring from 12 to 24 inches in length and from 9 to 17 inches in width, with a stride length ranging from 45 to 65 inches.
2.  Pleurocoelus - The second category of prints consists of saucer-like depressions, ranging to over 3 feet in length and 2 feet in width, with stride lengths from 7 to 10 feet. Only one group of dinosaurs contained representatives capable of leaving such enormous tracks. These were the sauropods, plant-eating forms with serpentine necks, massive bodies on pillar-like legs, and long tails. Glen Rose deposits contain only one kind of sauropod, 30 to 50 feet long, with a relatively short neck and tail, called Pleurocoelus.
3. Iguanodon - Besides being rare, the third category of prints is also something of a mystery, although these tracks are generally attributed to an early ornithopod — one of the two-legged plant-eaters whose later descendants included the duck-billed dinosaurs. Like the first kind of tracks mentioned, the impressions are large, three-toed and bird-like, but the toes are not as elongated, and the “heel” tends to be more rounded in outline. A 1985 Texas discovery of Iguanodon bones — belonging to a 30-foot-long ornithopod previously known only from Europe — may finally account for the originator of the mystery prints, since this dinosaur has the proper kind of stubby, three-toed foot structure.

And, we didn't get to see any of the critters named above running around the park, either.

Saturday night, the campground was completely full but by 2100, most everyone was quiet and the full sound of nothing was in the air. Not a single coyote singing nor a single frog looking for love could be heard. By Sunday night, a lot of empty camp sites appeared but the only sound that night was the chomping and chittering of the raccoons who found the garbage bag I left outside and the drip drip of the scattered, light rain.

Overall, we really enjoyed getting away for the weekend but if you want to see the prints in the rocks, you might want to wait until the river goes down (like August through November).

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 As far as rating this campground, the facilities were good, the campsite was really level, and the trails were adequate (except for trying to cross the very slick rocks to get to the bird watching part of the park).

So, with mixed emotions, I am rating this park with two RVs.