Danger at the Dinosaur Stomping Grounds

by Judy Young

  THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17

  The next morning, Dad shook Buck awake.

  “Get up, take a quick shower, and put on your official shirt,” he said. “We’re leaving.”

  Buck sat up, rubbed his eyes, and looked around. Everything had been packed up and stashed away, ready to move on. Dad’s bed had been pushed back into couch shape. Toni and Shoop were sitting on it, eating breakfast. Toni’s hair hung long and wet from her shower.

  “Leaving?” Buck asked. “Why? I thought we were going to show you the dinosaur skull.”

  “You are, dude,” Shoop said, grinning. “We’re going to go the back way.”

  “What about the arroyo?” Buck asked.

  “I’ve talked with Ranger Ortiz,” Dad said. “He assures us it’s crossable now.”

  Soon the Green Beast was moving down the dirt road. Although the sand in the arroyo was wet, the Green Beast had no trouble crossing it. They turned onto the main highway, but it wasn’t long before they turned onto another dirt road, crossed the arroyo again, and continued down Salt Valley Road. When they got to the connecting road, Dad turned, heading toward the bluffs. From his seat on the couch, Buck looked through the front window. At the base of the bluffs sat a ranger’s truck and Jessica’s SUV. Dad pulled up behind them and stopped. Buck was the first one out the door, and Toni was right behind him.

  Jessica was leaning against the side of the truck, talking with Nash and Ranger Ortiz. Beside her was a man Buck had never seen before. Buck and Toni walked over to them. They said hello to everyone, and then Buck immediately turned to the ranger.

  “Did you catch Robert?” he asked.

  “Red-handed,” Ranger Ortiz answered, “and pretty wet, too. They were stopped at the flooded arroyo, and when they heard the chopper, they tried to drive across but got stuck. Lucky for them, the water had receded enough that they weren’t swept away, but they had to wade out of the river.”

  “We were all shocked when we found out it was Robert,” Nash said. “I asked Ranger Ortiz if I could come with him today to apologize for not coming yesterday. If I had been here—”

  Buck interrupted Nash. “You don’t need to apologize—I do. I should have let you know that I, not Dad, was texting you and that we were by ourselves.”

  “Well, I’m just glad you two are okay,” Nash said.

  “We all are,” Jessica added, “and that Robert has been caught.”

  “What will happen to Nick and Wyett?” Toni asked.

  “They were both in on it,” Ranger Ortiz said, “and they’ll both be charged, Wyett as an adult, and Nick as a juvenile. If convicted, which I’m sure they will be, Robert and Wyett will face prison, and Nick will probably go to a juvenile facility.”

  “What will you do with all the pictographs and fossils?” Toni asked.

  “They’ll be used as evidence in Robert’s trial,” Ranger Ortiz said. “Afterward they’ll go to the museum in Price.”

  As the ranger spoke, he turned and took a box from the bed of his truck.

  “I believe these are yours,” he said, handing the box to Buck. “I photographed and inventoried everything, so you can have your things back.”

  Buck set the box on the ground. Right on top was Toni’s red backpack. He pulled it out and then immediately turned to the ranger, a big smile across his face.

  “I wasn’t expecting to ever see this again! Thanks!” he said, pulling out a white piece of laminated cardboard with red letters, holding it up for all to see. “They found my bear danger sign!”

  One by one, Buck and Toni pulled out the rest of the items. Toni handed Dad his cell phone. Buck put on his sunglasses and plopped his hat, with the head-mounted camera still attached, onto Toni’s head. Shoop pocketed the windscreen and then put his tool in its sheath and slid it onto his belt. Nash looped a braided bracelet around his wrist, and Buck put his camera in his pocket. The last item pulled out was the patch.

  “This isn’t ours,” Toni said, holding it out to the ranger. “Nick stole that from the gift shop.”

  “Wait a second,” Buck said, then raced back to the Green Beast.

  “Where are you going?” Toni yelled after him, but Buck didn’t answer. In a few seconds he returned.

  “I’d like to buy it for Toni,” he said, handing the ranger a five-dollar bill. “Can you take the money to the gift shop when you return?”

  “Sure, Buck,” Ranger Ortiz said, smiling.

  Buck turned to Toni, who was still holding the patch. “You said you thought it would look good on your backpack.”

  “Thanks, Buck!” Toni said.

  There was one more question Buck had to ask. “What about the dinosaur skull? Was there one in the jeep with them?”

  “No,” Ranger Ortiz said. “Thanks to you two, they didn’t get that.”

  Now the stranger beside Jessica stepped forward. “That’s why Jessica and I are here. I’m Dr. Owen, the paleontologist your dad and Shoop were with yesterday, and I can’t wait to see this dinosaur skull!”

  “Well, what are we standing around here for?” Buck asked. “Let’s go!”

  Everyone got into their vehicles and drove north cross-country. When they reached the cluster of juniper trees, Buck told Dad to stop. Getting out, he and Toni showed the others where the jeep and trailer had been parked and where the tents had been set up. Smiling at Nash, Buck showed them where he’d hidden, tossing stones down at the criminals. He pointed toward the crouching cougar rock and then toward the chimney.

  “We’ll go up that to get to the dinosaur skull,” he said.

  “Really?” Shoop asked, but didn’t wait for an answer. “Toni, let’s go get our equipment.”

  The two went back to the Green Beast. Shoop emerged with his backpack. Toni stepped out with her backpack and the black case that held the shotgun mic, but Buck was waiting for her.

  “Give that thing to Dad,” he said, “and go back in and change into an official shirt. You’re part of this adventure, and you need to be on camera when we film the dinosaur skull.”

  Grinning, Toni pushed the case into Dad’s hands and rushed back into the Green Beast. It seemed like forever before she came back out in an official WILD WORLD shirt. Her hair was once again folded and wrapped in colorful strings. As the camera recorded them, the two started wending their way through the maze of boulders. The others followed.

  At the bottom of the chimney, Toni took off her backpack and pulled out her cord with the carabiners hooked to it. Nash helped her attach all of their backpacks and the black case together. Then, hooking the other carabiner to her belt loop, Toni followed Buck up the chimney, the cord dangling to her side, as Shoop filmed them. Much to Buck’s surprise, Shoop climbed up behind them as if he had been scaling rockfaces all his life. When everyone was on top of the bluff and they had helped Toni haul up the equipment from below, Buck pointed to the grotto where the uprooted juniper still partially concealed the entrance.

  “That’s where the dinosaur skull is,” Buck said. Then he and Toni hurried up and immediately looked at the rock above the entrance.

  “Nick made some chips in the rock,” Buck said quietly to Toni as the others were climbing up, “but thank goodness he didn’t damage the fossil.”

  Then Buck and Toni turned to face the camera.

  “We don’t know what kind of dinosaur it is,” Buck said, “so we’ve brought an expert paleontologist here to identify it. This is Dr. Owen.”

  “And this is Jessica, Dr. Owen’s assistant,” Toni said.

  Climbing up beside Buck and Toni, Dr. Owen and Jessica looked carefully at the fossilized skull. Excited, they began to inspect the rock all around it. Dr. Owen walked along the ledge for almost forty feet, Jessica following. Talking quietly to each other, they pointed to different places on the rock. Finally they came back to Buck and Toni.

  “I don’t know what kind of dinosaur it is either,” Dr. Owen admitted. “However, it’s not just a skull here. I think there may be a whole skeleton
embedded in this rock!”

  “See those little bits of black over there?” Jessica said, pointing. “They might be part of its ribs. And way down there, we think the end of its tail is exposed.”

  “The skull is most interesting, though,” Dr. Owen said. “We won’t know for sure until we get it dug out, and that may take many months. But I haven’t seen that sort of wavy bone structure on any dinosaur ever before.”

  “You’re kidding!” Buck said. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

  “Yes,” Dr. Owen said. “We may be looking at a whole new species.”

  Buck and Toni turned and looked at the fossil. Buck gently touched one of the points of its teeth as Toni slid her finger along the jawbone. Only a raven cawing as it flew over broke the silence. Finally Dr. Owen spoke.

  “You know, if it is a new species, the person who discovered it gets to name it.”

  Buck and Toni looked at each other. Both had dinosaur-size smiles across their faces.

  “We may be looking at the first Buckasaurus ever found,” Toni said.

  “No,” Buck said, looking back at the fossil. “We need to use both of our names. We’re looking at the first Bucktonisaurus!”

  GLOSSARY

  ALCOVE: A large recess in a rockface where the back wall is set farther in than the rest. Alcoves are often big enough to crawl into or stand in and can be used as shelter.

  ANCESTRAL PUEBLOAN (pronounced pweb-BLOW-an): Ancient Native American people and cultures that span what is now southeast Utah, northeast Arizona, southwest Colorado, and northwest New Mexico.

  ARCHAEOLOGY: The study of ancient people and cultures.

  ARROYO: A creek bed in an arid environment. It’s usually dry except during spring thaws or flash flooding.

  ATV (All-Terrain Vehicle): Three- or four-wheeled vehicle in which the rider straddles the seat and handlebars are used for steering.

  BLM LAND: Public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and used for a variety of recreational, conservation, and economic purposes. The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, Mill Canyon, Klondike Bluffs, and Dinosaur Stomping Grounds are all on BLM land.

  BUTTE (rhymes with cute): A freestanding hill or rock with vertical sides and a flat top that is taller than it is wide. It’s similar to but smaller than a mesa.

  CAIRN: Stones purposely mounded to mark a specific place or show the direction of a trail.

  CANYON: A long narrow valley with high cliffs on each side.

  CARABINER: A metal D-shaped ring with a spring-hinged clip used by rock climbers as a connector.

  CHIMNEY: A vertical crack in a rockface that has parallel sides at least two feet apart. When you climb up or down a chimney, it’s called chimneying.

  CONIFER: A tree with cones and needlelike evergreen leaves.

  CREVICE: A narrow crack in a rock wall. May also be called a fissure.

  CYCADS: Subtropical plants with thick trunks and palmlike leaves that grew during the Jurassic period.

  ERODE/EROSION: When rock or dirt is worn away by wind and/or water.

  FEMUR: Thigh bone.

  GROTTO: A small cave.

  HANDHOLD: Something to hold onto while rock climbing, such as a crack, crevice, hole, or knobby rock.

  JUNIPER: A small fragrant evergreen tree with cones that look like bluish berries; grows well in dry, rocky environments. There are several species of junipers. The Utah juniper (Juniperus utahensis), which grows throughout Canyonlands, is generally less than forty feet tall.

  JURASSIC PERIOD: A span of time between 199.6 to 145.5 million years ago.

  MESA (pronounced MAY-sa): A large flat-topped mountain or rock that is wider than it is tall. It’s similar to but larger than a butte.

  MIDDEN: A pile of sticks, twigs, leaves, grasses, and other natural or man-made materials gathered by an animal, such as a pack rat or squirrel.

  PALEONTOLOGY: The science concerned with the fossils of plants and animals.

  PETROGLYPH: A prehistoric image carved or etched into rock.

  PICTOGRAPH: A prehistoric image painted or drawn onto rock.

  PINNACLE: A tall towering rock. Also called a spire or needle.

  PITON (pronounced PEE-tahn): A peg or spike driven into rock with a hole through which a rope can be threaded to support a climber.

  POTHOLE: Rounded bowl-shaped indentations on the top surfaces of rock formed by erosion.

  RAVINE: A deep, narrow, steep-sided gorge that is usually created by running water. Often a creek or an arroyo is at the bottom of a ravine.

  RIMROCK: Vertical-sided rock along the tops of ridges.

  ROCKFACE: The vertical side of a cliff. Also referred to as a rock wall.

  SAGEBRUSH: A scruffy shrub or bush that grows in abundance in semiarid regions across the North American West.

  SANDBAR: Sand that has been forced by the actions of water to form long ridges of “solid ground.” Sometimes sandbars are along banks of rivers; sometimes they are surrounded by water, like sand islands.

  SAUROPOD: A very large herbivore (plant-eating) dinosaur that walked on four massive legs and had a small head and a long neck and tail. Jurassic sauropods included the Camarasaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Apatosaurus.

  SCRAMBLING: A climbing term describing the action between hiking and climbing when the land or rock is so steep that hands must be used instead of upright walking.

  SERRATED: Having a jagged, sawlike edge. The Allosaurus’s teeth were serrated on both their front and rear edges.

  SHED: The skin or antler of an animal that naturally falls off and is replaced by one growing underneath it, such as snakeskins and moose or deer antlers.

  SLICKROCK: Red or white sandstone that has been worn smooth by wind.

  THEROPOD: A carnivorous (meat-eating) dinosaur that typically walked on two feet. Jurassic theropods included the huge Allosaurus, the small Compsognathus, and the birdlike Archaeopteryx.

  TOEHOLD: Something to use as a step while rock climbing, such as a crack, crevice, hole, or indentation in the rock.

  TOPOGRAPHICAL LINES: The lines on a map that indicate the general elevation of the land. The closer together the lines are, the steeper the land is.

  VERTEBRA: One of a series of bones that form the backbone. (Vertebrae, plural form)

  JUDY YOUNG

  Judy Young is the award-winning author of two dozen books, including the first book in the Wild World of Buck Bray series, The Missing Grizzly Cubs. Her books also include the middle-grade novel Promise and her newest picture book, Hu Wan and the Sleeping Dragon. An avid outdoors person, Judy spent several weeks camping, hiking, and climbing in Canyonlands National Park and looking at dinosaur fossils and tracks on prehistoric preservation sites nearby. Judy resides with her husband, Ross, in their mountain home in Mink Creek, Idaho, where she has seen the tracks of deer, elk, weasels, moose, and cougars, but as yet not a single Allosaurus has visited her bird feeder. For a behind-the-scenes adventure of Buck Bray’s Wild World, see his scrapbook on Judy’s website at www.judyyoungpoetry.com.

  “Buck Bray and his father are headed off to Denali National Park in Alaska to film the first episode in a new reality show about a kid exploring the wilderness. While surveying the park, Buck and Toni, the cameraman’s daughter, discover that animals are going missing. What follows is an exciting mystery with an outdoorsy twist. The Alaskan setting is well researched and described, with facts about the wildlife integrated into the text as lines from the reality television show. Many readers looking for something reminiscent of Will Hobbs’s books will find this enjoyable . . .”—School Library Journal

 

 

 
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