Dinosaur Ridge

This 1.5-mile trail along Alameda Parkway, between Rooney Road North and County Road 93, has hundreds of dinosaur tracks, a quarry of dinosaur bones, and interesting geologic features. To hike the Ridge will take between 1-2 hours and is about 2 miles round trip.  Originally uncovered accidently during the construction of West Alameda Parkway in 1937, the large tracksite was open for 52 years until the Friends of Dinosaur Ridge was formed to aid in preservation and protection of the footprints. Many tracks were vandalized or completely removed, though a single track found its way back in 2007 (this track and its story can be seen in the Trek Through Time exhibit). Today, after an expansion of the main site in 1994, over 300 tracks have been identified. Of those at least half are periodically colored using charcoal by Dinosaur Ridge volunteers to help visitors see the tracks in the sandstone.