More Dino Tracks on the San Gabriel

Yesterday, Marlene and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary by looking for dinosaur footprints on the South San Gabriel River. The previous weekend, we had located some great dinosaur tracks on the North San Gabriel (see Wading the San Gabriel post). This weekend, we headed to the South San Gabriel near Leander, where a well-known trackway exists.


We made our way down to the river, emerging upon a smooth bed of limestone that formed the river bottom. The river was down to just a trickle, but was clean and clear. Several other people were already there, also looking at the dinosaur tracks. A small boy threw rocks for our dog Molly into the river, which Molly promptly retrieved, much to the delight of both.

The trackway of dinosaur prints is pretty spectacular. Each print is about 10 inches long and separated from the next print by 3 to 4 feet. We counted 11 prints in all.

After examining the tracks, we hiked up the river a short ways, while Molly splashed around chasing small fish and swimming in the deeper pools. We topped off the day with a four-star dinner at Cafe Josie in Austin and then headed to Zilker Park to watch the outdoors performance of Beauty and the Beast.