Danger at the Dinosaur Stomping Grounds

by Judy Young

  “I wish I could go to those dinosaur sites,” Nick said, “but my uncle is really busy. I doubt he’d take me.”

  “What are they doing?” Toni asked. “Buck told me they left last night.”

  “Some sort of excavation work, mostly on BLM land,” Nick answered. “They leave early and get back late. I asked Uncle Bob if I could go with them, but he said I’d be in the way.”

  “What’s BLM land?”

  “It’s public land. I don’t know what the letters stand for, though,” Nick said. “It’s mostly wilderness. You can camp and do stuff like fish or ride mountain bikes on it, but they use it for grazing and other things too.”

  “Is it part of the national parks?” Toni said.

  “No,” Nick explained, “it’s outside the park boundaries. All that wilderness between the highway and the park entrance is BLM land, and there’s a whole lot more other places too.”

  “So why didn’t you guys just camp out there?”

  “There aren’t any regular campgrounds,” Nick answered. “Uncle Bob said I’d have more to do in the park, but then he put all sorts of restrictions on me.”

  “Like what?”

  “I’m not supposed to ride down any of the dirt roads or go on any of the hiking trails.”

  “So you’re basically limited to the campground road and the main road,” Toni said.

  “Exactly. And none of the cool stuff is on them.”

  “We’re going hiking tomorrow to see some pictographs. You could ask your uncle if you could come with us.”

  “That would be cool,” Nick said. “Come on. Our road’s up here. Let’s get ahead.”

  Nick sped up, passed Buck, and then cut in front of him, making a right turn onto the paved road that led to Cave Spring Road. Buck had to brake hard to keep from hitting him.

  “Watch where you’re going,” Buck called out.

  After turning the corner, Toni caught up with Buck.

  “What are you so grouchy about?” she asked him.

  “You’re not the only one who looks stuff up,” Buck answered. “But nobody notices when I do because I don’t brag about it like you.”

  “I wasn’t bragging; I was just stating,” Toni said back. “I thought you’d be interested in a new dinosaur.”

  “No, you were just showing off to Nick how smart you think you are,” Buck said.

  Toni tried to push on ahead, but Buck kept up with her. They had almost caught up with Nick when, without hesitating, he swung left onto the dirt road. Saying nothing more to each other, Toni and Buck followed right behind him. Ahead, two thin bicycle tracks, one heading down the road and another coming back up it, stood out clearly on top of vehicle tracks. Now three more lines joined the one going in. At the end of the road, Buck and Nick leaned their bikes against the Cave Spring trail signpost but Toni kicked down the kickstand on her bike. Then they started up the trail in single file, Nick still in the lead, Toni right behind him.

  “Wow, this is cool,” Nick said when he reached the cowboy camp. He walked over to the fence post and pulled a phone from his pocket. After taking a picture of the cowboy campsite beyond the fence, he turned to Buck. “I don’t see your glasses anywhere.”

  “They’re not here,” Buck said, looking over Nick’s shoulder at the fence post. “I left them hanging on that loop of wire.”

  “Maybe someone found them and took them to lost and found,” Nick suggested. “We could ask at the visitor center.”

  “Okay. I want to look in there anyway,” Buck said, and turned to leave.

  “I want to show Nick the stuff here first, Buck,” Toni said.

  “I don’t need to hang around if I don’t want to,” Buck argued defiantly.

  “We’re supposed to stay together,” Toni said.

  “Whatever,” Buck said, but didn’t leave.

  Toni pushed past Buck and stood next to Nick. “Hey, Nick. Let’s take a selfie. You can e-mail it to me when we get back to the Green Beast.”

  Toni posed by Nick in front of the cowboy camp but didn’t invite Buck to join them. Then, with Buck lingering behind, they hiked the entire loop. Nick and Toni took selfies at the handprints, standing on the ladder, in front of where the rattlesnake had been, and on the top of the formation with the Six-Shooter Peaks in the background. Toni excitedly told Nick about each spot, and when they came to the midden, Nick quickly pulled out his phone again.

  “Selfie time,” he announced, turning his back on the debris. He pulled Toni beside him, and as soon as the picture was snapped, he hurried Toni on down the path.

  Back at their bikes, Toni had difficulty kicking up the kickstand.

  “I need to oil it,” she said. “It keeps getting stuck.”

  Nick came over to help, but Buck swung his leg over the back tire of his bike and pushed off without waiting for them. He raced ahead to the visitor center and was already talking with the woman at the information desk when he saw Nick and Toni enter the building. Buck rummaged through the lost-and-found box the woman gave him. His sunglasses were not there, and when he turned around, Nick and Toni were nowhere in sight either.

  “They went in to see the movie,” the woman told him. Buck entered the small theater and sat down in the back. Scowling, he watched as Nick and Toni giggled together, paying no attention to the short film about how, for millions of years, wind and rain eroded the park’s rocks, thus creating all the strange formations.

  After the movie, Buck watched Toni and Nick as the two wandered around the museum together. Nick showed Toni a taxidermic pack rat, and Toni talked to Nick about the ancient clay figurines in another display case.

  “The figurines look just like some of the rock formations,” she said. “Almost human looking but without arms or legs.”

  “They do,” Nick agreed. “Let’s look in the gift shop.”

  Buck stood in front of a glass display case. He wasn’t interested in the labeled rocks inside. He was staring at the reflection of Nick and Toni behind him in the gift shop. He saw Toni stop at a display and take something small from a peg. Buck couldn’t see what it was, but Toni smiled and said something to Nick, showing him the item. Nick took the item but rolled his eyes and sneered. Toni didn’t seem to notice Nick’s expression, but Buck wondered why he had made the face.

  Buck continued watching as Toni took off her backpack, opened up a zipper compartment on the front, and took out her wallet. Nick took her backpack, and Toni headed for another display rack and then to the cashier. He saw Nick take a quick glance around the gift shop, go into the far corner for a moment, and then quickly leave. Nick went past Buck without a word and walked out of the building. Buck waited, and when Toni left, he was right behind her. Nick was waiting at the bikes.

  “Look what I bought. We might need these,” Toni said. She pulled a coil of cord and two carabiners out of a bag and held them up for the boys to see. Then she reached in again and took out a water bladder. “I was going to fill this up at the drinking fountain, but the woman said it was out of order.”

  She reached out for her backpack, but Nick wouldn’t give it to her.

  “I’ll carry it for you,” he said.

  “Thanks,” Toni said. She tore off the cardboard the water bladder was attached to, handed all the items to Nick, then looked around. “There’s not a trash can out here. I’ll be right back.”

  As Toni walked back into the building, Nick stuffed the things into her backpack. Then he pulled a water bottle from one of its mesh side pockets.

  “She’s carried your water around all afternoon,” he said to Buck, “and all Wild World Wonder Boy has done is act like a jerk.” Nick tossed the bottle at Buck’s feet. Buck grabbed it and tossed it back at Nick.

  “I’ve got my own water. She carried that one for you,” Buck said, and pushed off on his bike as Toni came back out.

  “What’s his problem?” Buck heard Toni say as she walked toward Nick.

  “Who knows,” Nick replied.

 
At the campground, Dad, Shoop, and Nash all looked up but said nothing when Buck rode in by himself and stomped into the Green Beast. When Toni and Nick finally got there, Shoop stood up and put on his backpack.

  “About time, Toni,” Shoop said. “We’re ready to do another shoot.”

  “Super!” Nick said, heading for the Green Beast. “I’d love to ride in this!”

  Buck stepped outside the camper, holding the black case, and slammed the door shut.

  “We’re just walking,” he told Nick, and pushed past him.

  “At the top of the shortcut, there’s a trail to some cutout steps,” Dad said. “That’s where we’re going.”

  “Oh, I know where that is,” Nick said. “I’ll just put your backpack in the Green Beast, Toni.”

  “No, I want to try out my water bladder,” Toni said. “There’s a water faucet outside the restroom. I’ll fill it up there on our way.”

  “We’ll all need to fill up there,” Dad said. He clipped his water bottle to his belt. Buck pulled his from his bike and did the same.

  At the water faucet, Nick filled the bladder and zipped up the backpack. This time, as he started to put his arms through the straps, Toni took it from him.

  “I’ll carry it so I can drink from it,” she said, but giggling, she squirted Nick. As the others replenished their water bottles, Nick chased Toni up the campground road until it dead-ended.

  They waited for the others, then Nick continued to lead the way as they climbed up the shortcut path. Instead of dropping down into the mesa-view side of the campground, he turned, going across the top of the ridge.

  They followed cairns along narrow ledges and increasingly steeper slopes of slickrock. Shoop was getting farther and farther behind. Then he stopped altogether.

  “Oh, no, you don’t,” he said. “I’m not going up that!”

  Ahead was a slope of slickrock so steep that metal poles were set into the rock. They held a cable to make a handrail that zigzagged to the top.

  “See those steps carved out of the rock,” Nash said. He pointed to indentations chiseled into the steep rockface that were just deep enough to place the toe of a boot. “That’s how the ancient Indians got up and down steep places.”

  Nick hurried up the slope, not even touching the handrail. At the top, he reached down and picked something up.

  “I’ll stay down here and zoom in on Buck,” Shoop said. He took off his backpack and pulled out the camera.

  “We’re ready to shoot,” Dad called up to Nick. “You need to come back down.”

  When Nick came back, he had a small stone in his hand. He showed it to Toni.

  “It looks just like my mushroom campsite rock,” Nick said, and put it in his pocket.

  “You can’t keep that,” Buck said harshly. “It’s illegal to collect things from national parks.”

  “That’s a stupid law,” Nick said.

  “No, it’s not,” Buck argued.

  “Who would even know, unless you turned me in?” Nick sneered.

  “I might,” Buck retorted.

  “Enough, you two,” Dad said, then turned to Nick. “Buck’s right. Leave it here.”

  Nick glowered at Buck but took the stone out of his pocket and dropped it to the ground.

  “Thank you,” Dad said. “Now, everyone, move out of the way. We need to get to work.”

  “I’ll take a close-up of your foot in the first step and then pan out as you climb up. At the top, go out of sight for a second and then come back down,” Shoop instructed.

  Buck placed his foot in the first step. As Shoop zoomed in on his boot, he repeated what Nash had said about the early inhabitants carving stairways.

  “They didn’t have a railing, but with these steps, I don’t need one either,” he added. Then, without taking ahold of the cable handrail, Buck climbed to the top. He turned around, waved, and walked out of sight as if he were continuing on his way. Soon he was back again, coming down.

  As the group walked back to the campsite, they watched the sun sinking toward the horizon on the flat side, making the ridgeline cast long shadows over the mesa-view campsites. The quiet peacefulness of early evening settled over everyone, and no one spoke until they reached the Green Beast. Nash left, saying he’d see them in the morning. Dad and Shoop sat down at the picnic table and immediately started looking over the footage they had shot. Buck, Toni, and Nick stood behind them, looking over their shoulders. But when they got to the cowboy camp scene, Buck suddenly said, “I’m starved. Toni, let’s get dinner going.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Dad said.

  “I’ll help,” Nick said.

  “No,” Buck quickly replied. “It will be too crowded.”

  Buck grabbed Toni’s arm and hurried her toward the Green Beast. Inside, he almost pushed her into her room and, going in behind her, closed the door. He quietly slid the window shut and, before closing the blinds, looked outside. Nick was still standing behind Dad and Shoop, watching the screen.

  “What’s going on?” Toni asked.

  “It’s about Nick,” Buck said.

  “What now?” Toni said, impatience seeping into her voice.

  “I don’t trust him. When we went to get my sunglasses, Nick took us straight to the cowboy camp. And then he stopped right where I had put my sunglasses on the barbed wire.”

  “So?” Toni said.

  “Nick wasn’t here when I told Dad I’d left them at the cowboy camp.”

  “No, but you told him you left them at Cave Spring.” “Yeah, but the spring is where the handprints are. Nick never heard me say the cowboy camp, yet he went right up to where I had hung them on that wire,” Buck said. “And there’s more. When we turned onto the dirt road, there was one bike track leading in and one leading out. I think they were Nick’s.”

  “Couldn’t be,” Toni said. “He told me his uncle said he had to stay on the paved roads.”

  “Yeah, I know. I heard him,” Buck said. “And he said he wasn’t supposed to go on the trails, either.”

  “So you were eavesdropping on our conversation,” Toni said.

  “Take off the blinders, Toni,” Buck said, ignoring Toni’s accusation. “He obviously doesn’t listen to his uncle. He went down that dirt road with us, didn’t he? And he already knew the way to the carved steps, too.”

  “They could have been anybody’s tracks on Cave Spring Road,” Toni argued.

  “Have you seen anyone riding bikes but us?” Buck asked. “Plus, we saw Nick come out of the visitor center and head that way, remember? I think he went in there after we left, found my sunglasses, and took them. He found out they were mine but didn’t give them back.”

  “You’re being ridiculous,” Toni said. “You’re just jealous because Nick likes me. So you’re blaming him because you lost your sunglasses.”

  With that, Toni pushed past Buck, raised the blinds, and opened the window.

  “Hey, Nick, come on in,” she called out. “I’ll turn on the Wi-Fi and you can e-mail me the selfies we took.”

  “Don’t forget you guys are making supper,” Shoop said.

  Buck stomped out of Toni’s room and opened the refrigerator. As Nick came in, Buck grabbed the first thing he saw and charged out of the camper. He clanged open the lid to the grill, pushed the button to light it, and, ripping open a package of hot dogs, slammed them one at a time onto the grate. Just then Toni called out the window again.

  “Can Nick call his uncle and ask if he can come with us tomorrow?”

  “Nope,” Shoop said without even moving his eyes from the screen. “We’ll be busy filming all day and don’t need any extra distractions.”

  TAKE 9:

  “BIG AL HAD THREE FINGERS ON EACH FORELIMB, EACH TIPPED WITH A DEADLY, EIGHT-INCH EAGLELIKE CLAW.”

  MONDAY, OCTOBER 14

  Dad’s alarm rang at five thirty the next morning. Buck put his head under his pillow when the camper’s ceiling light turned on. He moaned when Dad shook him but finally got
up when Toni gave her usual call.

  “Five-minute warning,” she said from behind her closed door. “Time to get decent and outa here!”

  “Why so early?” Buck asked as he pulled on his cargo pants.

  “Unfortunately, the lighting is best early in the morning when there are shadows,” Shoop answered groggily from his bunk.

  “Plus, we’ve got a long hike to where the pictographs are,” Dad added.

  Buck put on one of his official shirts. He shoved his feet into a pair of socks then put on his hiking boots. Grabbing a flashlight, he headed for the door.

  “Decent and outa here,” he said, pounding on Toni’s door on his way out.

  “Dressed and departing,” Dad said, following Buck from the camper.

  “Do you two have to do that every morning?” Shoop muttered, rolling out of his bunk. “It’s way too much before I’ve had my morning coffee.”

  Toni giggled. “Two minutes and counting, Shoop!”

  Already in sweatpants and a T-shirt, Shoop slipped on a pair of flip-flops and poured a cup of coffee.

  “All yours,” he said, taking a sip. Then he stepped out to follow the others to the campground restroom.

  Buck returned to the Green Beast first. Toni still had the blinds pulled down, her signal not to enter the Green Beast until she was ready. Buck thought it was a ridiculous rule, since she had her own room, but Dad had said it was okay. Knowing Toni took her time each morning, Buck climbed onto the ridge and walked until he was across from the mushroom rock campsite. He shined his flashlight toward it, looking for a reflection.

  Guess they left early again, Buck thought when the light didn’t reflect off any taillights.

  When he went back to the Green Beast, slats were open on the kitchen blinds, allowing strips of light to show through. Buck stepped in. Toni was holding a braided bracelet, and Shoop was rummaging through the kitchen drawers.

  “Have you seen my tool?” Shoop asked Buck.

  “No,” Buck said.

  “I guess it will turn up somewhere,” Shoop said. “No sense wearing this, then.” Unbuckling his belt, Shoop slid the empty tool sheath off and tossed it onto the table. As Dad dished up breakfast, Toni took a sharp kitchen knife from the drawer and cut off the last strands of threads from the bracelet. She put the finished bracelet on the counter and sat down to eat.