Dinosaurs in the Desert

But we were safe, they were all behind a fence.

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Earlier on this Saturday morning a few weeks ago, my friend and I walked a 5k together at the Amerind Museum in Dragoon, Arizona.

Image from Amerind photographer

It’s a fun 5k to participate in. This is the second year I walked it. It’s a relatively easy journey, and I love the rock formations in this area, which is why Dragoon is one of my favorite places to visit. And it’s only about a 45-minute drive from my house.

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But after the 5k, we did something different.

We went out and discovered a herd of dinosaurs out in the desert.

I’ve been to the Amerind Museum several times. Twice for the 5k, a few times to hike some of their hiking trails there, and twice to see the museum and art gallery there, that features Native American art.

But I’ve always come in from the west, got off the freeway a mile or two away and returned via the same way. On the 5k day, Katy was meeting me there, coming from Bisbee in the opposite direction. So, she ended up coming through the small town of Dragoon and spotted the dinosaurs on her way there.

After we finished the 5k, and stopped first to get a Navajo taco to eat (YUMMY!! It was so delicious), we headed east to see the dinosaurs first, before we each headed home.

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Besides the dinosaurs lounging behind the fence, there were also some other fun sculptures to see.

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And more dinosaurs there than I even imagined, when Katy told me what she’d passed on the way to the museum.

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Just for size comparison, here’s a shot of me standing beside the tallest creature. I think that I’m glad these are only metal re-creations. If it were a true, living creature, I wouldn’t have stood a chance. I’d have been gobbled up in a flash.

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As much as I enjoyed seeing all these huge beasts, my favorite moment was when I turned and headed back the other way, to go back to the car. As I passed alongside this guy, I spotted something fun. A real, live, current day ‘dinosaur’ resting on the side of this huge fellow.

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Moving in closer … can you see it yet?

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And here he is in all his glory, a real-life dinosaur lounging on the fake one.

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