View of Flaming Gorge from Sheep Creek Overlook on Utah Route 44. Inset: Fossilized dino tracks at Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite in northern Wyoming.
RESOURCES:
• Utah Tourism: VisitUtah. com
• Dinosaur National Monument: NPS. gov / dino
• Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area: FS. USDA. gov
• Wyoming Tourism: TravelWyoming. com
• Western Wyoming Community College: WesternWyoming. edu
• Wyoming Dinosaur Center: WyomingDinosaurCenter. org
• Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite: BLM. gov
Back up the byway to U. S. Route 14, I continue east toward Buffalo, but first there’ s some riding to do. Shell Canyon kicks off the fun, up to Granite Pass and over into the Bighorn Mountains, with some of the finest riding in Wyoming. Best of all is that you think you are done by
Burgess Junction, but then you turn east and U. S. 14 is now the Medicine Wheel Passage Scenic Byway, with lovely forests and high mountain meadows bisected by sport- touring friendly pavement.
After a good 45 minutes of fun, I am now back on the Wyoming plains and hit Interstate 90, and that is the end of my dinosaur chase. I turn on the mental cruise control and head south, back to Colorado and home. It was a great week of riding, and although I never caught any dinosaurs, I sure had fun roaming their ancient playgrounds.
Thermopolis, Wyoming, is home to the world’ s largest mineral hot spring.
RIDERMAGAZINE. COM / JULY 2026 / 27