If you’ve ever watched
Jurassic Park and thought “that looks pretty cool, except for the part where the people get eaten”, then Utah’s newest state park may be for you.
Located just north of Moab, Utahraptor State Park covers 6,500 acres of trails, campgrounds, and fossil beds with more bones than Dinosaur National Monument. The park’s namesake, the Utahraptor, was first discovered here in 1991, and has since become the state’s official dinosaur. Possibly the largest of all the Cretaceous raptors Utahraptor dwarfed the better-known velociraptor at nearly 20 feet long. Researchers believe it used its 9.5-inch sickle-shaped claws to rip apart prey before tearing in with 2-inch-long serrated teeth. Depictions based on the latest research show Utahraptor as a feathered, bipedal carnivore, sometimes roaming in packs, sometimes alone (there isn’t yet definitive proof that they were group hunters).