Entry No. 21 — the Pueblo file — filed under: outdoor
Skyline Drive Dinosaur Tracks
“For 94 years, drivers inched past without noticing the wall was stamped with dinosaur footprints.”
For 94 years, drivers inched along this one-lane 1905 prisoner-built ridge road without noticing the wall beside them was stamped with dinosaur footprints. A geology student finally spotted them in 1999: roughly fifty ankylosaur tracks, 100 million years old, that bulge out of the rock instead of in. The Rockies tilted the old mudflat nearly vertical, so you are looking at the underside of the trackway — natural casts of armored dinosaurs slogging through coastal mud, now hanging at car-window height.
The story
In 1905, sixty inmates from the local Territorial Prison hauled pickaxes up a razor-thin hogback ridge above Cañon City, carving a one-lane road out of sandstone for ten days off their sentences for every thirty worked. For ninety-four years after that, drivers crept along the crest with their knuckles white and their eyes glued to the steep drop-offs on either side, entirely unaware that the cliff face scraping their passenger doors held a secret stamped right into the stone.
It wasn't until 1999 that a geology student looked closely at the rock wall roughly half a mile past the entrance arch and realized the raised bumps weren't ordinary weather patterns. They were trace fossils: roughly fifty tracks left by armored, four-legged ankylosaurs slogging through a Cretaceous coastal mudflat 100 million years ago. But instead of indenting into the stone, these prints bulge outward in heavy relief, hanging on the wall right at car-window height.
The phenomenon is a trick of deep-time tectonic violence. When the heavy dinosaurs stomped through wet mud, dense sand washed into the deep depressions and hardened over millennia. Later, the massive uplift that raised the Rocky Mountains caught this flat coastal mudflat and tilted it nearly ninety degrees vertical. Millions of years of weathering eventually stripped away the softer mud matrix, leaving only the hard sandstone casts sticking out. You aren't looking down at where a dinosaur trod; you are standing beneath the inverted, vertical bottom of its step.
What it's like
Once you turn off US-50 and pass beneath the stone entrance arch, you are committed. The drive is strictly one-way eastbound for 2.6 miles along a knife-edge hogback with zero guardrails, no wide shoulders, and no turnarounds before dropping onto 5th Street downtown. About half a mile in, pull completely off into the designated turnout by the interpretive sign—stopping in the single driving lane on a blind ridge is a terrible idea. Walk back along the east-facing cliff face and look slightly above eye level. The three-toed convex shapes bulge outward from the rock wall; bring binoculars if you want to inspect the raised claw outlines clearly, and skip the drive entirely if high winds or winter ice are in the forecast.
The move: Ride the knife-edge slow, park at the overlook just past the dinosaur-track marker, and walk back along the ridge to find the three-toed bulges together before coasting the dips down into downtown.
📍 Before you go Traffic runs one-way eastbound only: once you pass under the stone arch off US-50 you are committed for all 2.6 miles until the road drops you onto 5th Street downtown, so leave trailers, RVs, and anything wide behind. Do not stop in the lane at the tracks — use the marked pull-off with the interpretive sign and walk back along the crest. The footprints sit above eye level on the east-facing rock wall; bring binoculars if you want toe detail. Skip it in ice or high wind, and pair it with the Museum of Colorado Prisons at the bottom of the hill or the Royal Gorge nine miles west.
- 📍 Cañon City
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: Skyline Drive, Cañon City, CO 81212 — enter under the stone arch off US-50 about 3 miles west of downtown; tracks at a marked pull-off roughly half a mile in
Hours: Added 2026-06-11 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Skyline Drive — You are already driving the razorback hogback road that convict laborers carved out of the rock in 1905, making it impossible to separate the trace fossils from the sheer thrill of the drive.
- Museum of Colorado Prisons — The prison system whose inmates hand-cut Skyline Drive with pickaxes in 1905 operates a museum inside the 1935 women's cellhouse right at the bottom of the hill on 5th Street.
- Owl Cigar Store — Finish your nerve-racking drive along the ridge by descending directly into downtown Cañon City for a burger at this 1903 watering hole that predates the road itself.
Good to know
How do I find the dinosaur tracks on Skyline Drive?
Drive about three miles west of downtown Cañon City on US-50 and turn under the stone archway onto Skyline Drive. The tracks are marked by an interpretive sign and pull-off roughly half a mile down the road on the right-hand rock wall.
Why do the dinosaur footprints stick out instead of sinking into the rock?
They are natural casts. The original footprints pressed into soft mud 100 million years ago were filled with sand, which hardened into dense sandstone. Tectonic forces tilted the mudflat vertical, and the softer surrounding mud eventually eroded away, leaving the hardened sand casts protruding outward.
Can I drive an RV, camper, or pull a trailer up Skyline Drive?
No. The road is a narrow, single lane carved along a sharp ridge with steep drop-offs, tight squeezes, and no place to turn around. Leave trailers and wide vehicles behind before passing under the entrance arch.
Is there an admission fee to see the tracks?
No, access to Skyline Drive and the dinosaur track pull-off is completely free and open to public traffic.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: Wikipedia · denvergazette.com · canoncitycolorado.com · Atlas Obscura
last checked: 2026-06-11