echo park/sand canyon trail

On day two of a visit to Dinosaur National Monument we took the Ranger's advice and drove the Echo Park Road to Echo Park. The park map says “high-clearance vehicles only. Impassible when wet”. We have a Subaru Forester that was deemed to be high enough. It hadn't rained in several days so off we went. As you are driving the Harper's Corner Road on your way to the turn off, watch for deer. The pick up truck in front of us came close to an “encounter of the third kind” with a good sized buck. As promised, the Echo Park road is unpaved, steep and very narrow. For the most part it is wide enough for two vehicles to pass-by each other but there are plenty of places where one vehicle is going to need to pullover. As you travel down the road there are so many beautiful places demanding to have their pictures taken. There are canyons, petroglyphs, whisper cave and an old pioneer homestead to poke around. At road ends near the confluence of the Green and Yampa Rivers where you'll find a campground and picnic area. A short walk brings you riverside. In front of you is Steamboat Rock. This is a great place to sit and contemplate how fortunate we are to have a national parks system. At some point you need to leave and take the slow 13 mile drive back to Harper's Corner Road. If the Ranger says “Go”, you should.

the hiking trail provided an absolutely perfect view, not to be missed. We took the off road drive down to the bottom of the canyon to the river's edge. It was amazing and was a totally different prospective.

The drive up to Echo Park via the UT entrance of Dinosaur National Park was not worth it to me. Very long drive and climbing up & up and the views are ok but not amazing. Took too long out of our day.

The whole area around Steamboat rock/Echo Park is by some distance the best place in Dinosaur NM. And the great thing is that you can see it from two different perspective in the same day. By going along Echo Park Road you can go all the way to the river. There are several sights along the road, including a ranch, whispering cave and petroglyphs, as well as beautiful scenery. The road is easy and is manageable with a normal car (beware this may not be the case for Yampa bench road that branches off to the east).The other perspective is from Harpers Corner trail where you get a view from the top. Well worth doing both on the same day.

If you come to Dinosaur, do not miss Echo Park. An hour drive, but absolutely worth it! The views, the rivers (Yampa & Green) the canyon...and the campground are fantastic. One of the unknown gems of the west!

This is a place I love to visit, and have done so many times over the years. If you camp at the Echo Park campground, you could go on a different day hike every day for a week and never have to move your car! The geology is spectacular and Steamboat Rock in all its grandeur is the centerpiece of this magnificent landscape.

This might be an out of place review, but we got to Echo Park on the Green River. Echo park is at the confluence of the Yampa and the Green Rivers. There are massive sheer cliff walls that generate amazing echoes. I can't comment on the hiking, but floating down the river as we did provided a spectacular view of the Canyons with the benefit of remaining cool in an otherwise hot environment. The standard trip sets in at the Gates of Lodore and is a four day trip that takes out at Split Mountain. The trip as a whole is just amazing. The canyons are spectacular and relatively unknown compared to some of the attractions in Utah and Arizona.

25 Meilen (40 km) nach dem Canyon Visitor Center biegt kurz vor dem Island Park Overlook die Echo Park Road, eine abenteuerliche “unpaved road”, rechts Richtung Osten ab. Die Straße führt teilweise steil und kurvig in den Sand Canyon hinein. Nach 8 Meilen (13 km) erreicht man die Abzweigung der Yampa Bench Road. Man biegt nach links ab und kommt nach 5 Meilen (8 km) zum Echo Park, dem Zentrum des Dinosaur NM. Dabei muss man mehrmals den Pool Creek überqueren, der nach Regenfällen Wasser führt.Auf dieser Tour gibt es neben der herrlichen Landschaft und vielen schönen Felsformationen noch einiges zu entdecken. Ungefahr auf halber Strecke liegt die verlassene “Rial Chew-Ranch”, die von 1900 bis 1949 von der Familie Chew bewirtschaftet wurde und heute ein “Historic Place” ist. Beim Echo Point sieht man Fremont Petroglyphen, die “Whispering Cave” oder auch eine Herde neugieriger Weißwedelhirsche.Am schönsten ist es jedoch direkt am Green River, der hier eine richtige Schlinge um den 800 ft. (250 m) hohen “Steamboat Rock” macht. Dieser Fels sieht wie eine Haifischflosse oder ein Segel aus rotem Sandstein aus. In unmittelbarer Nähe fließen der Yampa und der Green River zusammen.Hier am Echo Park gibt es einen einfachen Camping-Platz mit 22 Plätzen (Insektenspray nicht vergessen!), eine Toilette, Picknick-Plätze und eine Wasserleitung (nur im Sommer).Die Park Ranger empfehlen in der Regel für die Echo Park Road hochgestellte Allradfahrzeuge. Bei trockenem Wetter und bei entsprechender vorsichtiger Fahrweise ist sie auch von normalen 2-WD-Autos befahrbar, nicht jedoch bei Regenfällen. Für RVs, Campervans und Autos mit Trailer ist die Straße gesperrt.