Danger at the Dinosaur Stomping Grounds

by Judy Young

  “I saw all that,” Buck admitted. “I was watching you guys. That’s why I knew when it fell from your backpack that he had shoplifted it.”

  “I was stupid to think he liked me,” Toni said with a big sigh.

  “He stole the patch,” Buck said, “but I think he likes you. It’s me he doesn’t like.”

  “You’re just trying to be nice,” Toni said.

  “No, but I’m curious,” Buck said. “Nick looked really irritated when you showed him the patch. What did you say to him?”

  “That you’d think it was cool,” Toni said.

  “That makes sense,” Buck said. “He didn’t like it that you were thinking of me.”

  “I told him I would have bought it for you except I was mad at you.”

  “You had a right to be mad at me,” Buck said, “and I hate to admit it, but Nick was right too. When you went back in to throw away the trash, he told me I was acting like a jerk to you and I was.”

  “I wasn’t being nice to you, either.”

  “That’s okay. I deserved it,” Buck said. “But come on. There’s something I have to tell you.”

  Buck led Toni out to the information desk. The woman who had given him the lost-and-found box was there.

  “Our dads will probably be in the ranger’s office for a while,” Buck told the woman. “When they come out, would you please tell them Toni and I are walking back to the campground?”

  “Sure, Buck,” the woman said. “Did you ever find your sunglasses?”

  “No, but I think I know who has them.”

  Buck and Toni went out the door and walked across the parking lot.

  “You know this morning when I went back to the Green Beast to see if you had locked the door?” Buck started. Toni nodded. “Well, the door was wide open and my bear danger sign was gone.”

  “You’re kidding!” Toni exclaimed. “Do you think that was Nick too?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Was anything else missing?”

  “I don’t know,” Buck said. “Where did you leave the patch?”

  “In the bedroom on the desk.”

  “It wasn’t there, but nothing else seemed to be missing.”

  “The computers and everything were still there?”

  “Yes, everything seemed fine, just the sign and the patch.”

  “I’m really sorry, Buck.”

  “It’s not like you meant to leave the door unlocked.”

  “No, I mean for not believing you,” Toni said. They walked on without talking for a while longer, and then Toni angrily kicked at a stone. “All along he was just using me, and just like you said, I was too blind to see it.”

  “You’re not to blame, Toni,” he said.

  “So you’re not mad at me?” she asked. “I should have listened to you.”

  “No, I’m not mad at you. But I was so mad at Nick when I saw my sign missing, I rode over to his campsite to have it out with him.”

  “What did he say? Did you get the sign back?” Toni asked hopefully.

  “He wasn’t there. I know I shouldn’t have, but I looked in their tents. The sign and patch weren’t in there, though.”

  “Why didn’t you tell your dad?”

  “I should have,” Buck admitted, “but I want to handle it myself.”

  “I would too,” Toni said.

  “Well, we can confront Nick together when we get to the campground,” Buck said. “Then we’ll tell Dad and Shoop.”

  They walked down the main road and turned onto the campground road without talking. Although they were tired from the day of hiking, they sped up when the campground road divided. Buck kept his eyes peeled toward Nick’s campsite, hoping to get a glimpse of him.

  “Darn!” he called out, coming to a halt. “Their tents are gone. They’ve left!”

  “I’m so sorry, Buck,” Toni said again. “You’ll never get your sign back now.”

  They started walking again, and when they passed the drive to the mushroom rock site, they both looked down it.

  “The sign really doesn’t seem as important now,” Buck said, “not compared to what’s been stolen from the park. I can replace the sign, but those pictographs are gone from that spot forever.”

  Back at their campsite, Toni went up to the camper door, then laughed. “Oh yeah, it’s locked now,” she said. Buck grinned at her and sat down at the picnic table. Toni came and sat down beside him. They waited for a few minutes before Toni spoke up.

  “Nick said there was a grotto in back of the mushroom rock. Let’s go see what it looks like before someone else sets up camp there.”

  Buck was up in a flash. He dialed the combination on the bike lock and took their bikes from the rack. Soon the two rode into the other campsite drive. All that was there were tire tracks, footprints, and flattened grasses where tents had been set up. They left their bikes in the drive and walked around to the back.

  “It’s not much of a grotto. It’s more like an alcove,” Buck said without even stopping. “Let’s just circle all the way around. Maybe this isn’t it.”

  Buck continued walking, but Toni stopped in the middle of the alcove.

  “Awesome!” she exclaimed. “Nick never said anything about that!”

  Buck looked back and followed Toni’s gaze to the top of the alcove. A crack went up through the rock to a ledge just under the overhang. Stuffed between the ledge and the overhang were twigs, leaves, and grasses.

  “Cool! There’s a huge midden up there!” Buck pulled out his camera and took a picture. Then he hurried to the back wall. He crammed his fingers and toes in the crack and scaled it ten feet up to the ledge.

  “You’re not going to believe this!” he said. “This was made by a rat, all right, but not by a pack rat. It was made by Nick! Look at this!” Buck reached into the debris, tugged at something, and held it up for Toni to see.

  “Your sign!”

  “Yeah, and there’s more,” Buck said. “Stand back.”

  Buck tossed the sign to Toni, then pushed Nick’s midden off the ledge. Big clumps of twigs, leaves, and pieces of grass fell to the ground. Mixed in with it were other objects.

  “The bracelets I made for Nash, both the small one and the larger one!” Toni said, picking through the debris. “And your compass, Buck. He had your compass!”

  Buck jumped down from his perch and felt at the pocket of his cargo pants. Nothing was there. He thought for a second, then said, “Oh yeah. I let Nick look at it after the campfire talk. He never gave it back to me!”

  Toni handed Buck the compass and he put it in his pocket. Then he and Toni rummaged through the brush. They found a junior ranger badge, four souvenir coins, and a library card from Eagle, Idaho, that had a logo of a bald eagle reading a book. There was a lighter, a bandanna, a pink pen with butterflies on it, three carabiners all hooked together, a bright orange shoelace, and several pieces of jewelry.

  “Look,” Buck said, holding up a furry windscreen. “He evidently got into Shoop’s black case.”

  Toni picked up a small mushroom-shaped rock. “I guess he picked this back up when we weren’t watching.”

  “I guess so,” Buck said. He rummaged around some more. “But I don’t see the patch.”

  “Me neither,” Toni said, “but look at this!” She held out her hand for Buck to see. A gold ring with a turquoise stone lay in her palm.

  “What are you doing?” a voice behind them suddenly said. Startled, Buck and Toni jumped up and spun around. Robert was standing there.

  “Thank goodness it’s you! You scared me half to death,” Buck said.

  “We saw your bikes in the drive,” Robert said. “I dropped your dads off and told them I’d let you know they are back. What’s all that stuff?”

  “This was all hidden up there,” Buck said, pointing up to the ledge.

  “Some was stolen from us and this came from the Cave Spring midden,” Toni said, showing Robert the ring. “We don’t know where the rest came from.”

/>   “Let’s put this stuff in your backpack, Toni,” Robert said. “Then I’ll meet you two back at the Green Beast.”

  With the backpack stuffed, they walked to the campsite drive where Nash was waiting in Robert’s jeep. Robert got in with Toni’s backpack and backed out. Buck picked up his bike, waiting as Toni kicked repeatedly at her stubborn kickstand until it finally went up. When the two got to the Green Beast, Dad, Shoop, Nash, and Robert were all sitting at the picnic table, the midden items in front of them.

  “Sit down,” Dad said. “You have some explaining to do. How long have you known your sign was missing?”

  Buck let out a big sigh. “Since this morning,” he said, not looking his father in the eye. “It was gone when I came back to lock the Green Beast. I checked the whole camper, and it didn’t look like anything else was missing, but I guess there were a few other things.”

  “I suppose you knew too, Toni?” Shoop asked.

  “No,” Toni said, “Buck didn’t tell me until we were walking back to the campground.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us right away?” Dad said, glaring at Buck.

  “I figured it was Nick and I was really mad,” Buck said. “I didn’t tell you because I wanted to confront him myself.”

  “Anger is not a good excuse,” Dad said. “There’s actually no excuse for not telling me.”

  “It’s my fault too,” Toni said. “Buck told me this morning he thought Nick had shoplifted the patch from the visitor center and also that Nick took his sunglasses, but I wouldn’t listen to him.”

  “Then you both should have come to us right away,” Shoop said.

  “Were the patch and the sunglasses in with this stuff?” Robert asked.

  “No,” Buck answered.

  “But we’re pretty sure he shoplifted the patch,” Toni said. “Neither Buck nor I saw him pay for it.”

  “You’re both making assumptions that it was even Nick,” Robert said.

  “But it was at his campsite,” Buck argued. “Isn’t that proof?”

  “Anyone could have put that stuff there,” Robert said. “I drove through the campground after lunch and saw Nick taking down the tents. It’s after four now, so that site’s been vacant for several hours.”

  “I guess,” Buck said.

  “Well, we better gather all this stuff up and take it to the ranger before the office closes,” Dad said. “They need to know someone entered our camper and has taken things from other people as well.”

  “I can do that,” Robert said. “I know you guys are planning on leaving this evening and you need to get packed up. If the ranger needs to talk to you, I’m sure he’ll call or come by.”

  “Thanks. That would be great,” Dad said. “Buck, go get a plastic bag to put all this in.”

  When Buck returned with a bag, Dad started stuffing everything in.

  “Even my sign?” Buck said.

  “Yes,” Dad said. “They’ll need to see everything that was taken.”

  Buck sighed, but Toni spoke up. “What about the windscreen? Won’t we need that?”

  “I’ve got an extra one,” Shoop said.

  Robert picked up the bag. “By the way, do any of you recall if Nick ever said a last name? Either his or his uncle’s? It may help the rangers.”

  They all shook their heads. Dad and Shoop stood up and thanked Robert and Nash for their help.

  “Good luck filming the rest of the episode,” Robert said. “I can’t wait to see it.”

  Nash hadn’t said a word while they were discussing the stolen items, but before he headed toward Robert’s jeep, he turned to Buck and Toni. “I’ll keep you posted if I hear any news about the pictographs,” he said. “Buck, text me what you think about the dinosaur tracks, and, Toni, you still need to make me another bracelet.”

  TAKE 12:

  “BIG AL TOOK GIGANTIC STEPS. HIS STRIDE LENGTH WAS ALMOST NINE FEET!”

  TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15

  Dad’s alarm went off early again. This time Buck jumped up and went into the camper’s bathroom. They were camped where Nash’s friend, Jessica, had suggested, off to the side of a remote dirt road in the middle of nowhere on BLM land. There was a small fire ring where some others had camped before, but no picnic table, no outhouse, no water faucets. Buck was dressed and out the door before Toni ever got the chance to ask if everyone was decent.

  After driving two hours the night before, they had pulled in late and hadn’t seen what was around them other than what showed up in the headlights’ glare. Now the sky turned pink as Buck looked around. There wasn’t another person or vehicle in sight, just miles and miles of arid landscape, cut with deep ravines and rising up in rocky ridges. Larger mesas and buttes rimmed the distant horizons, but the area didn’t have the unusual rock formations that Canyonlands had. And it didn’t look anything like the images Buck and Toni had looked at online depicting dinosaurs wandering through lush, subtropical landscapes.

  “The old place sure has changed over the last hundred and fifty million years,” Buck said when Toni stepped out of the Green Beast. “It just doesn’t look like home anymore.”

  “Yeah,” Toni said. “Hard to imagine this vast desert used to be lakefront property filled with dinosaurs.”

  Dad opened the door. “You guys, come get some breakfast. I think that’s Jessica coming. It’s going to be another busy day.”

  Buck looked down the road. A trail of dust was winding toward them. He hurried after Toni back into the Green Beast. They each grabbed a banana and were out the door just as an SUV pulled in next to the camper.

  “Hi!” Buck said as a young woman got out of the SUV. “I’m Buck.”

  “Glad to meet you. I’m Jessica. So you’re the one who can’t wait to see dinosaur fossils. Well, you’re going to see a bunch today! And you must be Toni. I love your hair. I ought to tie mine back like that.”

  “Thanks,” Toni said. “Maybe I can help you do it later.”

  Dad and Shoop emerged from the camper, and they all introduced themselves.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Dad asked.

  “There are three sites I want to show you. Two here at Mill Canyon and another over at Klondike Bluffs. Let’s just take one vehicle here. We can pick the other up on our way back out and you can follow me to the bluffs. We’ll have time to see everything today, but you’ll want to camp at the bluffs tonight.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Dad said. “There’s room for us all in the Green Beast.”

  Jessica smiled. “Good! Nash told me about that monster. I was hoping I’d get to ride in it. Just follow this road until it dead-ends.”

  Buck, Toni, and Jessica piled into the back of the Green Beast as Dad and Shoop climbed into the cab.

  “Nash said you’re studying paleontology in college,” Toni said as they started toward a distant ridge.

  “Yes,” Jessica stated. “I’m really lucky I get to do an internship with Dr. Owen. He’s a well-known paleontologist.”

  “What’s an internship?” Buck asked.

  “It’s when you get hands-on training while you’re studying,” Jessica explained. “I get to help Dr. Owen at a dinosaur dig.”

  “Is that where we’re going?” Toni asked.

  “No, there’s not a lot to see there yet,” Jessica said. “Just a bunch of pits and some people scraping away dirt with little things that look like dental picks and small brushes. It’s pretty tedious and slow work. But the dig is close to where they found a new dinosaur species not too long ago.”

  “I read about that,” Buck said. “The Siats meekerorum, right? They found it in 2013.”

  “No, I read about it,” Toni corrected Buck, “and told you.”

  Buck rolled his eyes but grinned at Toni.

  “Actually,” Jessica said, looking like she was trying not to laugh, “it was found in 2008. They didn’t realize it was a new species until 2013. It takes a long time to dig out and study a dinosaur fossil.”

  “The website said it wa
s named after a giant cannibalistic monster in Ute mythology named Siats,” Toni said. “What does meekerorum mean?”

  “Dinosaurs are usually named after where they’re found, a characteristic the animal had, or who found them,” Jessica explained. “The name Siats covers both what it was like and where it was found, since the Utes lived in this area. The Meekers financially supported the paleontological study, so it was named after them, too.”

  “That would be cool to have a dinosaur named after you,” Buck said.

  “If someone finds a dinosaur bone, what do they do?” Toni asked. “Dig it up and take it to a paleontologist?”

  “Good question, but no,” Jessica said. “If it’s on state or federal land like this, it’s illegal to do anything to it unless you have the proper permits. Even on private land, it’s best not to dig it up. If someone just brings in a bone, usually all we can tell is what kind of bone it is, like a leg bone or a vertebra, not necessarily what kind of dinosaur it came from. By seeing it where it’s found, we learn a lot from what layer of rock it’s in and what other fossils are around it.”

  The Green Beast pulled into a small dirt parking area overlooking a narrow canyon. As Buck stepped out, he noticed a trail of dust in the distance rising from behind a large clump of rocks.

  “What are you looking at?” Toni said.

  “Something’s stirring up a bunch of dust way out there,” Buck said, pointing toward the rocks.

  “Probably a dust devil,” Jessica stated. “They’re like little tornados except they don’t hurt anything.” Then she headed in the opposite direction, leading the way down into a ravine, across a dry, sandy arroyo, and up the other side to a ledge on a cliff. She stopped in front of a sign, blocking it from view with her body, and pointed to the rockface.

  “Do you see a dinosaur fossil?” she asked Buck. “Look for something embedded in the rock. It will look different and darker than the stone surrounding it.”