Most major historical events are only accessible to us by reading about them in books, leaving only our imagination to fill in the gaps. That's what makes this one place in Texas so neat: all the evidence is still there, even after millions of years. Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose gives us the opportunity to step back in time to the prehistoric era and see the very tracks that some of Earth's most majestic, ancient beasts left in the ground.
Time travel is real, and it exists right here in Texas. The journey begins in the Paluxy River at Dinosaur Valley State Park. There are even dinos at the entrance just waiting to greet you!
The tracks are in the riverbed, so they won't always be immediately apparent. Download maps here that you can use on your smartphone to help you find them more easily!
Two types of dinos have been identified, the first being the Acrocanthosaurus, or a smaller relative of the T-Rex. It was 20 feet tall, 30 feet long, and weighed 3 to 5 tons!
The other track traces back to the Sauroposeidon proteles, a massive creature that was 70 feet long, 13 feet tall, and weighed 40-44 tons. Its hind feet were over a yard long!
Even though seeing the imprints of such magnificent beings is the main attraction, there are tons of other activities to do in the park: camping, picnicking, hiking, mountain biking, swimming, fishing, observing wildlife, horse riding, and more.
But back to the dinos: the park offers an interpretive guide here that gives you all the information necessary to understand the tracks and the science behind their discovery and identification.
And for reference, just look at the size difference between a human hand and the front foot of a dino that walked this very ground so long ago. Crazy, right?
Here's a human foot compared to the dino's back foot. One thing's for sure: these guys were absolutely massive.
There's nothing quite like seeing the ground actual dinosaurs walked on millions of years ago and physical evidence of their existence.
Have you ever been to Dinosaur Valley State Park?
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