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Science
Dinosaur National Monument
This
is Echo Park, named by John Wesley Powell in 1869 during his first
scientific expedition into the Colorado Plateau. It is here that
the Yampa River, the last free flowing river in the Colorado River
System, joins the Green River. This is home and critical habitat
for the endangered peregrine falcon, bald eagle, Colorado pikeminnow,
and razorback sucker. Indian rock art in Echo Park testifies to
the allure these canyons and rivers had for prehistoric people.
In 1825, William H. Ashley and his fur trappers were the first Europeans
to enter Echo Park. In 1883, Patrick Lynch, a hermit, was the first
to homestead in this canyon.
In
his book, The Immense Journey, Loren Eisley wrote, "Once in a lifetime,
perhaps, one escapes the actual confines of the flesh. Once in a
lifetime, if one is lucky, one so merges with sunlight and air and
running water that whole eons, the eons that mountains and deserts
know, might pass in a single afternoon without discomfort."
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