The longest track of dinosaur footprints is now public. We got a tour with the grown-up boy who discovered them

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Exploring dinosaur tracks in Ouray
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Rick Trujillo, June 4, 2024, at the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Trackway, which sits above Ouray at about 9,000 feet next to a couple of old mine claims. Trujillo, a lifelong Ouray resident, is credited with discovering the trackway in 1958 when he was in high school.

Exploring dinosaur tracks in Ouray
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Exploring dinosaur tracks in Ouray
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News

TRUJILLO DINOSASUR TRACKS OURAY
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Lifelong Ouray resident Rick Trujillo, left, is credited with discovering Ouray’s West Gold Hill Dinosaur Trackway in 1958,while he wa in high school. He talks about the discovery with paleontologist Julia McHugh with the Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita, June 4, 2023.
Exploring dinosaur tracks in Ouray
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News

TRUJILLO DINOSASUR TRACKS OURAY
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
The San Juan mountain town of Ouray, June 3, 2024. The West Gold Hill Dinosaur Trackway sits in an open area atop the cliffs at left.

TRUJILLO DINOSASUR TRACKS OURAY
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Paleontologists say the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Trackway on the Silvershield Trail above Ouray, pictured here June 4, 2024, was left by sauropods, millions and millions of years ago.

TRUJILLO DINOSASUR TRACKS OURAY
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Paleontologist Julia McHugh with the Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita, at Ouray’s West Gold Hill Dinosaur Trackway, June 4, 2024. She’d seen the trackway in aerial photos and on Google Earth, but this was her first time seeing the trackway in person. She’s demonstrating how experts estimate the size of dinosaurs, using a rough formula of 4-times the length of a footprint. The hips alone of the roughly 50-feet long sauropods that left these tracks are thought to be 6 feet high.
Exploring dinosaur tracks in Ouray
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News

TRUJILLO DINOSASUR TRACKS OURAY
Hart Van Denburg/CPR News
Rick Trujillo on a trail near the West Gold Hill Dinosaur Trackway, above Ouray, June 4, 2024. Hayden Mountain, in the background, sits above Highway 550 to Red Mountain Pass at left, and the valley that leads to Imogene Pass and Telluride, at right.