Danger at the Dinosaur Stomping Grounds by Judy Young

Author:Judy Young
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781585363681
Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
Published: 2017-08-12T04:00:00+00:00

TAKE 12:

“BIG AL TOOK GIGANTIC STEPS. HIS STRIDE LENGTH WAS ALMOST NINE FEET!”

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15

Dad’s alarm went off early again. This time Buck jumped up and went into the camper’s bathroom. They were camped where Nash’s friend, Jessica, had suggested, off to the side of a remote dirt road in the middle of nowhere on BLM land. There was a small fire ring where some others had camped before, but no picnic table, no outhouse, no water faucets. Buck was dressed and out the door before Toni ever got the chance to ask if everyone was decent.

After driving two hours the night before, they had pulled in late and hadn’t seen what was around them other than what showed up in the headlights’ glare. Now the sky turned pink as Buck looked around. There wasn’t another person or vehicle in sight, just miles and miles of arid landscape, cut with deep ravines and rising up in rocky ridges. Larger mesas and buttes rimmed the distant horizons, but the area didn’t have the unusual rock formations that Canyonlands had. And it didn’t look anything like the images Buck and Toni had looked at online depicting dinosaurs wandering through lush, subtropical landscapes.

“The old place sure has changed over the last hundred and fifty million years,” Buck said when Toni stepped out of the Green Beast. “It just doesn’t look like home anymore.”

“Yeah,” Toni said. “Hard to imagine this vast desert used to be lakefront property filled with dinosaurs.”

Dad opened the door. “You guys, come get some breakfast. I think that’s Jessica coming. It’s going to be another busy day.”

Buck looked down the road. A trail of dust was winding toward them. He hurried after Toni back into the Green Beast. They each grabbed a banana and were out the door just as an SUV pulled in next to the camper.

“Hi!” Buck said as a young woman got out of the SUV. “I’m Buck.”

“Glad to meet you. I’m Jessica. So you’re the one who can’t wait to see dinosaur fossils. Well, you’re going to see a bunch today! And you must be Toni. I love your hair. I ought to tie mine back like that.”

“Thanks,” Toni said. “Maybe I can help you do it later.”

Dad and Shoop emerged from the camper, and they all introduced themselves.

“So, what’s the plan?” Dad asked.

“There are three sites I want to show you. Two here at Mill Canyon and another over at Klondike Bluffs. Let’s just take one vehicle here. We can pick the other up on our way back out and you can follow me to the bluffs. We’ll have time to see everything today, but you’ll want to camp at the bluffs tonight.”

“Sounds good to me,” Dad said. “There’s room for us all in the Green Beast.”

Jessica smiled. “Good! Nash told me about that monster. I was hoping I’d get to ride in it. Just follow this road until it dead-ends.”

Buck, Toni, and Jessica piled into the back of the Green Beast as Dad and Shoop climbed into the cab.

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