What comes to mind when you think of Northern New Mexico? Just a few that come up for us include: jaw-dropping vistas with incredible blue skies and huge cloudscapes. Red and green chile smothered on our burritos and…heck, just about everything! The beloved and iconic painter Georgia O’Keeffe and her gorgeous paintings of New Mexican landscapes. What didn’t pop up for us and might not for most others is, believe it or not, dinosaurs!
Did you know that New Mexico is home to six different dinosaur discoveries, including our very own state fossil Coelophysis, unearthed at none other than O’Keeffe’s home and artistic inspiration: Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu? And check this out – you can actually walk among dinosaur footprints at Clayton Lake State Park!
Located close to the borders of Oklahoma and Texas in the northeastern corner of the state, Clayton Lake State Park has more than 500 tracks made by a variety of dinosaurs and boasts the largest single collection of dinosaur tracks in the area. How cool would it be to literally walk in the footprints of animals that lived millions of years ago? We think so and we love to geek out on facts like this: it was from dinosaur tracks, not fossils, that we learned that dinosaurs walked erect and did not drag their tails.
Intrigued? Click on the link to learn more:
http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/spd/claytonlakestatepark.html