Although Dinosaur National Monument spans across Utah and Colorado, the most impressive dinosaur bones and fossil sites can be found in Utah. Still, there is one place in Colorado that I found to have some amazing overlooks, and that would be the Canyon Area.

The Canyon Visitor Center is at the base of the Harpers Corner Road, the Canyon Visitor Center is the gateway to the mountains and river canyons area of the monument. Exhibits and a park film orient visitors to resources, and staff are available to answer questions. A bookstore sells items that can further enhance your experience. Restrooms and water are available seasonally.

Althought there are no dinosaur fossil sites on this side of the park, there are many back roads and trails that lead to some very impressive overlooks.

The Harpers Corner Scenic Drive is a paved 31 mile road which begins at the Canyon Visitor Center and ends at Harpers Corner circle parking lot. From the northeast end of the parking lot, there is a one mile foot path that will lead to Harpers Corner overlook.

The Canyon Visitor Center is located near Dinosaur, Colorado and is open daily in the summer and is closed from October 17 until April 30 for the winter.

Approximately 800 to 1,200 years ago, as part of the second major migration onto the North American continent, the Fremont indigenous people, a Uto-Aztecan speaking tribe, began their settlement in the canyons of what is now in Dinosaur National Monument.

By 1500s CE, some of these Fremont, those of an early Tanoan Family language (likely and early Kiowa-Tanoan), migrated north from the Colorado Plateau and became the Kiowa originating as a historically known tribe near Yellowstone, and eventually ending up in the southern Plains.

The western, Uto-Aztecan Fremont may have migrated south to join related language groups such as Hopi in northern Arizona. The Fremont did not simply give up on farming because of climate change; they were just one group among many in North America responding to the changing climate.

During the summer of 1842, the Fremont Expedition found this land to be inhabited by the Shoshone and Ute, a Numic Family language group of native Americans, tribes who are still found in this area today.

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