To reach the trailhead, head left into the Echo Park Campground and swing around to the walk-in camping area, where there is a grassy field, several tent sites, and parking for several vehicles. ( Note: See my previous post for a description of this drive.) The road ends at the shores of the Green River, the centerpiece of Dinosaur National Monument’s canyon country and sculptor of the dramatic gorge walls of Steamboat Rock and beyond. The Mitten Park Trail is a remote route accessible only by river or the 12-mile, unpaved Echo Park Road. The hike traverses some exposed ledges and requires minor scrambling-but remains non-technical and accessible to those with a sense of adventure and thirst for solitude. The Mitten Park Trail, a three-mile out-and-back from Echo Park Campground, is a rarely-traveled path that features spectacular views of the Green River, Steamboat Rock, and Whirlpool Canyon and offers access to a remote beach along the river’s edge, just across from the Mitten Park Fault. This is the Mitten Park Fault, the product of dramatic faulting and uplift, and shares a name with one of the best “unofficial” hiking routes in Dinosaur National Monument. Situated just north of Echo Park on the Colorado side of Dinosaur National Monument, a sudden break in the cream-colored Weber sandstone produces a multi-hued swirl of color-a peculiar twisting formation where the horizontal shelves suddenly thrust upward into vertical stripes, culminating in one of the area’s weirdest-and most spectacular-geological features.

Mitten Park Trail, Dinosaur National Monument, June 2022

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