to Dinosaur Valley SP, TX

It was a short ride today from Cleburne SP to Dinosaur Valley SP.  I reasoned that if I felt ambitious, I could make the park just a day trip and ride south in the afternoon, and if I didn't, I could just stay here.

On the way to the park, I visited the Creaton Evidence Museum, at Malinda's recommendation.  It's amazing the sorts of things people will invent to justify an existing belief.  The "science" behind this version of the creation story supposes that the world used to be smaller than it is now and had a "firmament" made of a magenta, crystalline substance that later fell as rain during the Flood.  Then there's the 'hyperbaric biosphere," where plants and animals are grown under magenta light at 2 atmospheres of pressure and high electomagnetic fields of unspecified frequency, to simulate antedeluvian conditions.

Of course the reason for the museum's placement, en route to the state park, is to contest the park's claims that the fossil footprints are millions of years old.  Instead, the museum asserts that dinosaurs lived alongside people five thousand years ago.

Anyhow, I got to the park around 2:00 and found a sign at the entrance saying "no tracks visible."  Come to find out, all the tracks are underwater most of the time, and when the river is high, e.g. after a day of rain, they can't be seen.  So I came all this way and don't get to see the tracks.  I was tempted to ride on down the road just to show my frustration, but my joints were sore, and the place did sell ice... so I stayed to dry my laundry and look at the exhibits and ice my joints real good.

20.8 mi