Last weekend my husband and I drove out to the North East corner of the state to meet with voters. Shaking hands and talking to people is something my husband has to do, now that he's been appointed to the State Court of Appeals and must run in a contested election to keep the seat. I just go along to offer mental support, answer questions that he can't (judges must be impartial, and therefore can't express opinions on subjects that might come before them!), and carry supplies.
Busy though our schedule may be, my husband is kind enough to include something of interest to me. This time, he took an hour to let me see Clayton Lake State Park. Like most of the lakes in New Mexico, Clayton Lake is man made, and not much to write home about. But in the 1980s, heavy rains caused the lake to flood over the spillway, and the water scoured away sandstone to reveal the sixth best set of dinosaur tracks in the United States! The walk from the parking lot to the track site is only a quarter of a mile, on a paved path that would be accessible for wheel chairs and strollers. Once at the site, there are stairs to get down to the walkway shown in the picture below. A day use permit, required to park, costs $5. Have exact change, as no park attendant may be present.
At least four different kinds of dinosaurs and some crocodiles left prints in the sandy beach of the inland sea that split the North American Continent in two during the Jurassic Period. Some of the prints are deep, indicating wet sand. Others are shallow and indistinct, indicating that the sand was dry at the time the prints were made. In one place there is an elongated print and a tail impression, indicating that the dinosaur slipped and used its tail to regain its balance. In another place, two prints show superimposed prints, as if the dinosaur nervously stood on two legs and shuffled indecisively back and forth.
Most of the prints belong to two different species of Iguanodons, large plant eating dinosaurs that walked on two legs. Scientists can identify their prints because they show three distinct rounded toes. At least one baby Iguanodon walked long this beach. The tracks lead north and indicate that the dinosaurs were traveling together in a herd.
Other tracks show the three sharp talons that indicate a theropod. Scientists say these tracks were made by members of the Arocanthosaurus family, a relative of the Tyrannosaurus Rex that stood 12 feet high at the hip and could be 40 feet long.
One of the signs suggested that the best time to see the most tracks was early morning or late afternoon, when shadows helped reveal them. The Judge and I visited this site in the late morning. There were lots of signs explaining what we were looking for, and we were grateful, because without the signs we might not have even recognized what we were looking for. I wondered how many times in the past I've traveled over sandstone shelves studded with huecos and depressions that might have been dinosaur tracks and hadn't even stopped to consider them.
Most modern people aren't used to looking at tracks, but the hunters of old did. I had to wonder what Apache, or an even earlier Clovis or Folsom men might have thought when they came across these monstrous and unfamiliar prints in the ground. I can only guess that their hearts beat hard as they mentally constructed an image of the beast that might have produced such prints. That might be a scene worth writing.
