so today we're up here on fisher mesa at thebull canyon dinasour tracks site, about an hour outside of moab, utah and it's a prettyunique site. we have a dramatic setting here but the reallyneat thing that people can come up and experience is to actually see dinosaur tracks.and tracks were actually made by dinosaurs a long long time ago.the species, or the dinosaurs that were here, were theropods, or three-toed tracks, andthey're all throughout this forested area. and we just like people to come up and enjoytheir public lands and their national forest system and see the amazing resources we haveout here. the primary thing is the tracks, here, butthere's also great views of the la-sal mountains
and often the fisher valley, as well.so, here we are at one of the better preserved tracks at this site.this is the one people really come up to look for because its very obvious, it's three-toed,dinosaur track. you can come right up.you know, we don't want people stepping on it or putting plaster in it, but you can getreal close up close and see the actual track here.it's pretty amazing to think that this was the animal that created this was here 200million years ago, stepping in mud in a shallow ocean is what we think it looked like backthen. but it's just kind of mind-blowing to thinkabout the deep time that how long ago that
happened and what kind of animal it was andhow different the landscape looked at the time.so here we are at another set of tracks, on the edge of fisher mesa, right on the veryedge of fisher mesa, here, now. these tracks aren't as well-defined, but they'rein a very dramatic location. so you can actually see these; they look likethey're walking right off the cliff edge. so a lot of people come up here and ask, "wellwhy would these dinosaurs walk off a cliff?" one of the amazing things about this siteis, this is such an old site, you know, it didn't look like this at all when these trackswere made. this canyon, that's out here, was not here.this was a shallow sea.
and the mountains behind us are actually about28 million years old and the tracks are 200 million years old.so the tracks are much older than the mountains even here and that's kind of a very dramatic,mind-blowing thing to think about with that deep time and how old these tracks actuallyare. one of the things we also are trying to getpeople to teach people about here is the dinosaur tracks, themselves.as they walk off the cliff, they appear to walk off the cliff, but one of things we'vebeen talking about is in some ways they actually did walk off the cliff because these dinosaurs,the theropods, were the ones that eventually became modern day birds.and this is also a site where we see of redtail
hawks, and different raptors catching thermals,here, on the cliff edge. so it's a really unique site to be able tocome up and see these tracks walk off the cliff edge and then see their descendentsflying off the cliff, here, in the form of hawks and birds.so bull canyon dinosaur tracks interpreted site and overlook is approximately an hourdrive from moab. one of the most scenic drives in the stateof utah. you just leave moab and come up the coloradoriver and then up castle valley and up the gateway road.it's all paved to this site and the trail to access the tracks is a couple hundred feet.so it's a very easy trail, graveled trail,
and well-marked with interpretive signs.so we just want to invite people, the public, to come up and enjoy their public lands andsee a really unique resource on the manti-la sal national forest.