Dinosaur National Monument

Harpers Corner, Echo Park and the Yampa Bench Road

by Darren Kilgore

This area in the northwest corner of Colorado is the most remote and the least traveled region in the state. While Dinosaur’s fossil museum is in Jensen, Utah, three-quarters of the monument’s boundaries, along with the headquarters visitor center lie in Colorado. There is much more to this area than just dinosaur bones, which by the way, you will only see at the quarry out of Jensen. This is beautiful desert canyon country, where at the heart of it, the Yampa and Green Rivers meander and slowly make their way west and thrilling adventures await.

The town of Dinosaur lies three miles from the Utah border. From here, it is two miles east to the visitor center on the Colorado side. From the visitor center, take the Journey Through Time road which travels north 25 miles to the heart of the monument. There is no fee, unless you plan to stay at the Echo Park campground. More on that coming up. Along the way are some nice overlooks, most of them viewing down into the canyons. The Escalante Overlook is the first overlook you'll reach and is about six miles in. If you're fortunate enough to be here on a clear day, the view is quite expansive looking south to east. A ways after the Escalante Overlook, the road loops into Utah for a bit, then swings back into Colorado before it terminates at Harpers Corner.

The trailhead to the Harpers Corner Overlook is at the road’s terminus. It is reached by an easy one mile walk/hike and is on a rock cliff peninsula which overlooks Whirlpool Canyon and on into Utah to the west, and to the east, the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers behind Steamboat Rock. You can look straight east and let your eyes follow the canyon walls where the Yampa River makes its endless amount of goosenecks.

Backtracking five miles from the end of the main road is the turnoff for the Echo Park road. There is a sign at the start that recommends 4-wheel drive, but it is easily passable in a passenger car. There is relatively deep sand in places in the appropriately named Sand Canyon below after the road drops from the main plateau, but cars will not have a problem. It is eight miles to the turnoff for Echo Park and an additional four miles back to the campground in the park.

As for Echo Park, this was love at first site when I first visited here. The view of Steamboat Rock, reached from the boat ramp, above the Green River gooseneck is a classic. I could spend a whole afternoon here just watching the rafters go by. Come to think of it, I have done that! These are relatively busy waters during the summer. From this spot, Steamboat Rock is to the north, so photographing it and the canyons on either side is excellent in both the morning and evening. I find 20mm (35mm format) to almost be the maximum focal length needed to capture this big rock and some foreground elements. Having the ability to go even wider will allow for more flexibility, especially if you’re wanting a horizontal format.

Echo Park is a very relaxing place as there aren't any amenities here. It is surrounded by 1,000’ high sandstone walls on all sides, which really makes this an intimate setting and echoes do, in fact, exist here. At night, flashlights, or even better, laser pointers, are fun to shine on the sandstone walls. Okay, so I am easily amused! I’ll bet the farm you do the same, though! During the harsh light of the day, you may choose to spend your time walking the trails for a bit to either the Green and Yampa River confluence, or from the campground and paralleling the river on the west side of Steamboat Rock. On the latter trail, you’ll get to see a number of lizards close up on the canyon wall that shoots straight up right next to where you’re walking along the way.

It gets quite hot here during the summer, so come prepared. During one particular trip here on August 1st, it got up to 107°—in the shade! Yeah, it was an oven alright and being near the river there was a little humidity as well. I can’t recommend August for your expedition here! Again, there are no showers, unless you want to take a swim in the river to get refreshed. The campground here has 17 sites, with only a few offering any shade. It has a clean outhouse along with a water spigot. During the summer (and possibly other times of the year), you may get visited by a park ranger who will invite you to a nature talk that evening. It can be a friendly get-together with you and your camping neighbors.

Exiting Echo Park from the way you came in, and back at the intersection for its turnoff, going east from here the road is named Yampa Bench, where it parallels the Yampa River to the south. The road at this point has a little deeper sand than the aforementioned Sand Canyon, but still passable in a car. Just be sure to keep your momentum going in these sections, and in first gear. There are three excellent canyon overlooks along the way where the road and river come closer together: Castle Park, Harding Hole and Wagon Wheel. The Castle Park Overlook is the first, which is 6.5 miles from the Echo Park turnoff. They are all marked along the road and require short walks to get to the canyon rim’s edge. All three overlooks have great views looking east, north and south, so both morning and evening should provide great times to photograph here. Beyond the Wagon Wheel Overlook, I don’t find the rest of the drive to provide any further scenic opportunities, so I would probably recommend turning around here unless you are on your way out of the monument. If you’ve never visited this part of the state, you will most definitely be in for a treat!

All images and text copyright © Darren Kilgore