St George Dinosaur Discovery Site

When you have a kiddo, like Munchkin, who loves dinosaurs, you can’t pass up the opportunity to go to a real dinosaur site.  St. George Discovery Site at Johnson Farm is the type of thing that any kid loves to hear about.  A gentleman, Dr. Sheldon Johnson, was doing some work on his property leveling the land when he uncovered a dinosaur track in a thick layer of sandstone.  Experts were called in and thousands of tracks ended up being uncovered.  Dr. Johnson and his wife felt that this site should be preserved for science and future generations.

Eventually, a building was placed over the main dig site to preserve the area.  Now, the discoveries are available for all to view.  There are many other fossils and tracks preserved on the rest of the property.  Volunteers work on the property to meticulously work on fossils and tracks.  Visitors can see the very slow process as they work their way through the displays.

One of the fascinating things about many of the tracks at this site was that when the sandstone was split, the track impression was on the bottom while the raised footprint was on the top.  The mud/sand had created it’s own natural casting of the footprint.

Munchkin happily took a multitude of pictures and enjoyed thoroughly looking at each and every track and fossil on the site.  We just ignored all of the evolutionary content that was displayed as fact.  It was an excellent experience for all of us.  It left Munchkin wanting to go search for her own dinosaur discoveries.

From the beautiful slot canyons to the dinosaur tracks to Bryce Canyon to Zion, we had a trip filled with wonderful adventures.