Utah Trip Part 3 - Little Grand Canyon, Wedge Overlook, Buckhorn Wash, and Jurassic National Monument

On Sunday my brother, nephew and I visited the San Rafael Swell approximately 2.5 hours southeast of Provo, Utah.  The Bureau of Land Management administers much of the land in the area including some amazing yet little known sites.

Our first stop was the Wedge Overlook, a recreation area on the rim of the Little Grand Canyon.  To help visualize the area, picture the Grand Canyon but without crowds, park staff, interpretive signs and railings.   The BLM does an excellent job of maintaining the area, with well graded dirt roads, well placed picnic tables and campsites, and clean pit toilet restrooms.   We spent around an hour in the Wedge area, seeing around 30 people the entire time.  The third picture below is a trail leading out to an overlook, note the lack of people.  Here is a short YouTube video that I made of the view.  Note the lack of people and sound.

We next drove to Buckhorn Wash, which provides access down to the base of the Little Grand Canyon through a wide canyon.   In addition to being very scenic, there are a number of historical sites in the Wash, including a dinosaur footprint, petroglyphs (figures carved in rock) and pictographs (figures painted on rock).  

After exploring the Wash down to the San Rafael River, we headed to the Jurassic National Monument/Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Museum for our last stop of the day.   

The 850 acre Jurassic National Monument was created in 2019, but the Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Museum has been located at the site since the 1960's.  The monument and museum help protect and interpret a dinosaur quarry containing the highest concentration of Jurassic-aged dinosaur bones ever found.   The small visitor center and a covered dig site help explain work that has and is currently being done at the site.  This was a very interesting place to visit.