PRICE — If you have always wanted to visit the world’s most dense concentration of Jurassic dinosaur bones in one spot, look no farther than the Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Price, which is now open for the spring season.
Since the 1920s, paleontologists have collected and studied more than 12,000 fossil bones at the quarry. An Allosaurus skeleton watches over the visitor center and educational display and represents just one of at least 70 dinosaurs that lived and died in the area 145 million years ago.
Visitors will have the opportunity to view a protected part of the quarry, take a self-guided hike, picnic and enjoy the towering rock outcrops and vast open landscapes of central Utah.
This season a new Artist in Residence, Jason Huntzinger, will be featured at the visitor center. Huntzinger is an award-winning photographer and adjunct professor of art at Utah State University Eastern. His unique approach to photography is rooted in the philosophy that “most of the narrative moves outside the frame, which makes the mystery.”
Huntzinger’s work has focused on ghost towns of the Intermountain West, as well as the unique geologic landscape of eastern Utah. Originally from Duluth, Minnesota, he now calls Helper, Utah, his home. Throughout the spring and summer he may be found exploring and photographing the colorful badlands and rock features surrounding the visitor center.
If you go
The Bureau of Land Management Price Field Office welcomes visitors to the quarry, which is now open for the spring season each Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. A fee of $5 per adult helps cover a portion of the operating costs. The restrooms, buildings and path to the covered quarry are wheelchair-accessible.
To access the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry from Price, drive south approximately 12 miles on state Highway 10. Turn left onto state Highway 155 and follow the signs to Elmo for approximately 5 to 6 miles. Just east of Elmo, turn right onto a graded dirt road and follow the signs 12 miles through the Desert Lake Waterfowl Reserve and on to the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry.
Maps are available at the BLM office in Price. The road to the quarry is well marked, but there are a number of turns on the dirt road leading to the visitor center.
Visitors may also notice the new “Guardians of the Gates” – gate sculptures created by Nick Frappier and Kate Kilpatrick-Miller that were installed last summer.
For a fun and safe adventure, it’s always a good idea to make sure you have maps, water, food and proper clothing. Be sure to let someone know where you are going when visiting the deserts of southern Utah.
More information
For additional information about the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry contact the BLM Price Field Office at 435-636-3600.
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