About Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite
A tilted slab of limestone near Shell contains the preserved footsteps of dinosaurs that crossed the area about 167 million years ago. Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite contains hundreds of visible tracks and an estimated 1,000 or more in its most concentrated area.
The tracks became scientifically important for an unexpected reason. Before their discovery was reported in 1997, geologists generally believed this part of Wyoming had been covered by the Sundance Sea during that period. Dinosaurs leaving footprints require dry or extremely shallow ground, so the site provided evidence that the ancient shoreline was more complicated than previously understood.
The Bureau of Land Management says the footprints were made by bipedal dinosaurs moving across soft, ripple-marked sediment near the water. Many trackways head in similar directions, and some prints preserve three toes clearly enough to suggest meat-eating theropods.
Visitors can walk boardwalks and trails through the site and inspect tracks still embedded in the original rock surface. There are no reconstructed dinosaurs required. The strange part is beneath everyone’s feet: a Jurassic traffic jam preserved exactly where it happened.