We walked down from our house into town today to walk the Triceratops Trail.
The area is directly adjacent to the Fossil Trace Golf Course and once was a clay mine for a local brick company. This photo is looking down into one of the pits left behind by the workers who mined clay strips between layers of harder rock.
Long narrow bands of clay run through Golden and extend both north and south.
These are raindrop impressions in the rock.
The bulges in the rock are dinosaur track impressions. In this pit some extremely important discoveries were made.
A cast of a dinosaur footprint.
Big footprints in the rock.
A little further up the pit.
This terraced slope was installed to stabilize the area where the dinosaur footprints are found and to provide access for the public. The area was actively mined up through the 1990s before it was donated to the City of Golden.
Looking into another long, narrow pit left behind by the clay miners. An old steam shovel is sticking up behind some trees. Some of the mining equipment was left behind as interesting things for people to look at while playing golf.
Another pit with trees.
Looking north toward the Colorado School of Mines campus and the Flatirons. One of the two steam shovels on the golf course is forever parked above one of the holes.
Another steam shovel at the east edge of the golf course next to some expensive houses.
North and South Table Mountains and the Coors plant poking out between the two mountains.
The impressions on either side of the little sign are triceratops tracks.
Dinosaurs once walked here.
Little animal tracks and burrows were preserved in this part of the rock.
Here is a log impression.
More big dinosaur tracks poking out of the rock.
Big and very well-defined triceratops track.
Palm frond leaf impressions in the rock. Neat!
Big fronds.
More dinosaur tracks. A metal roof was built over this part of the rock to prevent erosion of the footprints.
Lots of leaves here.
Looking up at the steam shovel above the golf course.
Some old clay processing equipment left behind when mining ended. In the background is Mines Park; a student housing project run by the university. Many of the students have better housing than a lot of professors.
A panorama looking to the east with C-470 in the foreground and Denver off in the distance. Much of the foreground area was mined for coal and clay over the years.
