Wayfaring Day 145 - Day 4 Arvada

November 21, 2025 Friday

After having breakfast we headed out for some fun with our grandson. His mother stayed back at the house to do some work. Since our grandson is presently really into dinosaurs we decided we would spend the day at Dinosaur Ridge and the Morrison Natural History Museum. At the Dinosaur Ridge visitor center we purchased the tickets that included both places as well as the tour at Dinosaur Ridge. The 45 minute tour made the cost much more but was worth the money to be driven to the primary sites and have someone knowledgeable explain what we were seeing. The rocks here are so unusual and the ridge contains many tracks, bones and other fossilized plants and animals.

After the bus tour we spent some time in the visitor center. The lady working here made the visit very informative and interesting for all of us and especially our four year old. We then dug in the sand for fossils. You are allowed to keep one so he kept a Mosasaurus tooth which he was very proud of.

From here we drove the short drive to the Morrison Natural History Museum where we were able to take the tour of the many exhibits which are primarily form this part of Colorado. The tour was very detailed, informative and interesting. We were also introduced to methods of excavating fossilized bones from rocks. We all were allowed to use the grinding tool they use to carefully remove the surrounding rock. One big thing we learned was that there are many, many more fossils of all kinds inside Dinosaur ridge and some of the surrounding area in Colorado. It is also noteworthy to mention that the first ever discovered Stegosaurus was found here.

Our grandson had taken in about as much information he could handle and we were getting hungry so we said good bye to the dinosaurs and found a little restaurant in Morrison for us to have lunch. We had a nice lunch that although not inexpensive was quite enjoyable.

From Morrison we drove up through Red Rocks and took our grandson to the amphitheater which he enjoyed. As we drove around through Red Rocks we also looked for deer and saw four or five. We drove back down to the main road and headed back to the house. With so much dinosaur on our mind we stopped by Target and let our grandson pick out a not so big and not so expensive addition to his growing dinosaur collection. He played with that dino the rest of the evening.

After returning to the Vrbo we all got in the car and went to the Rhineland Bakery for some delicious items. We bought several things there, walked around Old Towne Arvada and then drove back to the house.

At about 6:00 we loaded up in the car and drove over to Golden for the basketball game. We had a good time at the game but the team did not fare too well. We play again tomorrow and there is some hope that maybe we can get our first win of the season. After the game we went back to the house. Our grandson and his mom went to their room to watch a little tv and then go to bed. Amy and David stayed up a little longer and eventually hit the hay.