Danger at the Dinosaur Stomping Grounds Read online

  Buck was much closer now, the cluster of junipers directly below him. A man and a teenager sat in the shade on camp chairs in front of the tents. The man was facing toward the valley. He had on khaki slacks, a blue shirt, and a ball cap. Buck could only see the back of his head. The teen sat near the man, his back toward the trailer. Buck guessed he was about eighteen or nineteen years old. Buck had never seen him before.

  Toni was right, Buck thought. There was a third chair. Buck could see a pair of legs, but the juniper branches hid the rest of the person. As Buck tried to get a glimpse of the third person, the man and teen talked quietly to each other. Buck strained to listen.

  “After lunch, we’ll drive across the valley and hike into Arches the back way,” the man said. “There’s a bunch of petroglyphs over there that I want. We’ll have just enough time to get back before dark.”

  “What’s the difference between pictographs and petroglyphs?” the teen asked.

  “I’ve explained this before,” the man said impatiently. “Pictographs are painted on; petroglyphs are carved into rock.”

  “Why don’t we just take everything across and camp over there?” the teen asked.

  “I don’t know if there’s a good spot to hide over there,” the man said. “We lucked out with this place.”

  Buck looked up toward Toni. He could see her clearly. Picking up a small stone, he gave it a toss toward the trees. It noisily bounced and tumbled down the rocks. Buck looked up at Toni. Toni immediately put her circled fingers around her eyes. Buck waited for what seemed like forever before she put her fingers down. Then he waited a bit longer and tossed another stone. Toni’s fingers instantly went back up to her eyes, but they didn’t stay there as long. Buck waited again, then lightly pitched a third stone. This time, Toni’s thumb went up.

  His heart beating fast, Buck slipped out from behind the boulder. Still trying to stay undetected, he hurried down the slope toward the trailer. It was only seconds yet it seemed like a million years before he was behind the last boulder twenty feet from the trailer door. He stopped and peeked out from behind the rock. The man and teen were still sitting in the camp chairs, but now the third chair was empty. Buck looked at the tents. The flaps were open, but he didn’t see any movement. He looked toward the jeep and trailer, and then around the whole area. He didn’t see anyone. He peeked around the other side of the rock toward where Toni was hiding. From this position, he couldn’t see her, either.

  Wondering where the third person was, Buck took his chances. Moving out into the open, he raced across the sandy dirt of the valley floor, darted around the open trailer door, and stepped inside. Two big backpacks leaned against one wall. A powdery residue was on them. Toward the back, the floor was lined with five rows of plaster mounds, five in each row. Two more mounds started a sixth row. The back and sides of the trailer were lined with sets of plastic drawers. Buck checked to make sure the head-mounted camera was on and pulled his own camera from his pocket too. Quickly and quietly, he pulled open drawer after drawer, snapping a picture each time, careful not to knock over the backpacks or step on any plaster mounds.

  Pushing the last drawer closed, Buck cautiously stepped out of the trailer and took a quick peek around the door. The man and teen were still sitting under the trees, and he could once again see a pair of legs in the third chair, but that wasn’t what Buck focused on. Right in front of his eyes, an open padlock hung on the trailer door, the key still in the keyhole. Buck pulled the key from the lock and slipped it into his pocket. Taking another look toward the junipers, he raced back and crouched down behind the boulder he had left only a couple of minutes before.

  As Buck sat there pondering his next move, it dawned on him that in Nash’s story, the cougar caught the deer. It never had to get back up the mountainside undetected. Buck decided it was too risky to go back the way he had come. Instead, keeping hidden behind boulders, he made a wide upward sweep in the opposite direction until he reached the base of the cliff. Then he scooted along the base back toward the bottom of the chimney. There he could see Toni, sitting where he had left her, a few yards away. She hadn’t even noticed Buck. She was staring at the phone in her hand, a worried look on her face. Buck tossed a tiny piece of gravel toward her. Toni’s head shot up. She instantly smiled and scurried upward until she met Buck, the phone still in her hand.

  “It worked!” Buck whispered. He put his hand up, and Toni gave him a quiet high five.

  “Did you get in the trailer? Did you see anything?” Toni whispered.

  “I’ll tell you when we get up there.” Buck took the phone, put it in his pocket, and then put his cap with the head-mounted camera on Toni’s head.

  “Film me going up the chimney,” he whispered.

  TAKE 18:

  “BIG AL WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO HEAR YOU WHISPER. HE WOULDN’T EVEN HEAR YOU SCREAM! HE COULD ONLY HEAR LOW FREQUENCY SOUNDS SUCH AS THE RUMBLE OF THUNDER.”

  At the top, Buck took his cap back and turned off the head-mounted camera. Toni pulled up her backpack, and they hurried away from the edge of the cliff until they were certain they were out of sight and earshot of the people below. Leaning against a boulder, Buck pulled out his camera and handed it to Toni.

  “There’s all sorts of stuff in that trailer,” he said quietly as Toni brought up the pictures.

  “Those are the dinosaur track casts, aren’t they?” Toni said.

  “Yeah, but there are more than fifteen,” Buck said. “And they weren’t just the theropods from the stomping grounds. They made sauropod track casts too. I’m guessing at the boardwalk over at Mill Canyon. And each of those drawers has fossils, pictographs, and petroglyphs in them.”

  “Wow,” Toni said as she looked at each picture. “They’ve got some things we didn’t know about. Remember how Ranger Ortiz said other national parks had been vandalized? Maybe that’s where those ancient pots and clay figurines came from.”

  “And they’re planning on taking stuff from Arches, too,” Buck said. As he told her what he overheard, a raven flew past, cawing just above their heads.

  “Another nosy raven,” Toni stated, not even looking up from the camera.

  “Oh no!” Buck cried. “Look at the sky.”

  Thick black clouds that had been obscured by the ridge now rolled over it, and the breeze that had kept them cool all day was starting to blow hard. Within seconds clouds blotted out the sun, and a bolt of lightning shot down.

  “One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four Miss—”

  Before Toni finished saying Mississippi, there was a deafening roar of thunder.

  “We need to take cover!” Buck spoke over the sound of the wind. “Remember that grotto back there? Come on.” Buck sped around the large boulders, Toni close behind.

  “There!” Buck pointed to the small cave under an overhang. Above it, the juniper swayed violently in the wind. Clawing their way up ledges and then leaning over so they wouldn’t hit their heads, they darted into the grotto. It wasn’t very tall or deep, but they crawled in and sat down cross-legged, leaning against the back wall.

  The darkened sky lit up again. This time, the thunder boomed before Toni could even say, “One Mississippi.” Almost instantly, it started pouring. Rain rolled off the rock above the grotto’s entrance in a sheet of water. Gravel and mud came with it. The howling wind sprayed water into the entrance, but in the back, the grotto was dry. Suddenly there was a loud crack, and the juniper crashed down, partially blocking the entrance.

  “Holy cow!” Buck exclaimed. “I’m glad that didn’t come down when we were crawling in here!”

  “No kidding,” Toni said. “It’s keeping the wind from blowing water in, though.”

  There was another bolt of lightning. Once again Toni started to count, but the thunder followed instantly.

  “Why are you counting like that?” Buck asked.

  “To determine how far away the lightning is,” Toni answered. “If you count how many seconds there are
between when you see lightning and when you hear thunder, then divide by five, it will tell you approximately how many miles away the lightning was.”

  “But why are you saying Mississippi?”

  “Because if you just count, you’ll go too fast,” Toni answered. “Saying Mississippi slows you down. It takes about a second to say.”

  “Really?” Buck pulled out the phone and, opening up the stopwatch, started counting aloud, adding Mississippi after each number. Toni looked at the stopwatch as he spoke.

  “See?” she said when Buck had gotten to five Mississippi. “It’s pretty accurate.”

  “So you got almost to four seconds before we heard the first thunder,” Buck said. “Five seconds would be about a mile. Wow, that lightning was really close!”

  “Eight-tenths of a mile away,” Toni stated.

  “Those last two had to be right on top of us!” Buck said. “Where did you learn all that?”

  “It was part of the science lesson I downloaded this morning.”

  “So that’s what took you so long. You were reading.”

  “Just while I was filling up my water bladder.”

  Buck looked at the phone again, then set it down beside him. “It’s twelve thirty. I’m starving,” he said. “Did you fix any lunch?”

  “No, but I put a couple of granola bars in my backpack. I thought we’d be back before lunch.”

  Toni took off her backpack and pulled out the granola bars.

  “Darn,” Buck said, after swallowing his last bite. “I left my water bottle on my bike. Can I have a drink of yours?”

  “Sure. I’ve got plenty.”

  Toni held out the tube and was squirting water into Buck’s mouth when a cougar screamed, echoing over and over through the grotto. Again, Toni startled, this time spraying Buck in the face.

  “Great,” Buck said as he picked up the phone.

  “I didn’t mean to,” Toni said.

  “No, not you,” Buck said. “It’s Shoop. Can’t believe we get a signal in here! Just one bar, though.”

  “Hi, Shoop,” Buck said, then waited a second before whispering to Toni. “It’s not Shoop; it’s Dad.”

  “Put it on speakerphone,” Toni whispered. Buck ignored her.

  “I can’t put Nash on,” he said into the phone. “He’s not here. He texted this morning and said he couldn’t come.”

  Toni listened to Buck’s end of the conversation.

  “I didn’t call you because I thought you’d worry. But we’re fine,” Buck said, then paused.

  “Yes, it’s pouring, but we’re high and dry,” Buck spoke again. “You’re kind of breaking up, though. The signal isn’t good.”

  Buck paused again before continuing. “No, we won’t.”

  “Won’t what?” Toni whispered. Buck just shook his head and put his finger to his lips.

  “Yes, we’ve got all the doors locked,” Buck continued. “Yes, we’ve been keeping busy. Toni downloaded our next lessons. There’s an interesting one on lightning and how fast sound travels.”

  There was a long time that Buck just listened, saying nothing back.

  “What’s he saying?” Toni whispered. Buck didn’t answer her. Finally he spoke into the phone again.

  “Yes, we’ll be fine. You don’t have to worry. Okay, talk to you then.”

  Buck turned off the phone and put it in his pocket.

  “He says it’s flooding where they are, and probably in that arroyo we crossed to get where we’re camping too. So they can’t get back until the waters recede. He’ll call again at about five o’clock and let us know what’s up.”

  “What did you say we won’t do?”

  “Go look at the arroyo.”

  “You should have told him what we’ve been doing.”

  “I did. I told him we’ve been keeping busy.”

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “It wouldn’t do anybody any good,” Buck said. “He’d be really worried, but he still wouldn’t be able to get across the flooded arroyos.”

  “At least we have a signal here,” Toni said. “We can call the rangers.”

  “The phone kept cutting out and it was hard to hear,” Buck said. “When it stops raining, we’ll head back to our bikes and call as soon as we get more than one bar. I know we had two where we got Nash’s text.”

  “Okay,” Toni said.

  They sat in the grotto, playing tic-tac-toe and hangman in the dusty floor for more than an hour. When the rain finally stopped, Buck crawled to the front of the grotto. With water from the rock above the entrance dripping onto his back, he climbed over the trunk of the juniper and stepped outside. It was really dark to the east, but above him the clouds were much lighter and the sun was beginning to peek through from the west.

  “It’s clearing up,” Buck said. “Here, give me your hand. I’ll help you out so you don’t get all muddy.”

  Buck put his hand on the rock above the entrance to steady himself as he leaned over the juniper. But before he took Toni’s hand, he stood back up.

  “Holy cow! You’re not going to believe this!” Buck said, looking at where his hand touched the rock. He quickly helped Toni out and pointed at the rock above the entrance. “Look!”

  Most of the rock was the rough sandstone they had been walking over for the past five days. But where Buck had placed his hand to balance himself, it wasn’t rough. It was smooth. And dark. Something that looked like black rock was embedded in the sandstone.

  “It’s a dinosaur’s skull!” Toni exclaimed.

  “Isn’t that awesome?” Buck said. “I thought I was grabbing rock, but I grabbed its jawbone! Look how big its teeth are!”

  Toni touched the end of one of the teeth, then ran her finger along the long line of the jawbone.

  “And look at that!” she said, pointing. “There’s a funny-looking wavy bone exposed up there. Like it had some sort of weird plate attached to its head. You need to film this, Buck!”

  “Just imagine,” Buck said as he switched on the head-mounted camera. He reached under his shirt and turned on the recorder, too. “That’s been lying there for millions of years, and finally a rainstorm uproots a tree and there it is! I wonder what kind of dinosaur it is.”

  “This is so exciting!” Toni said. “Give me the phone. Let’s call Shoop!”

  “No, let’s wait,” Buck said. “I want to see everyone’s faces when we tell them we’ve discovered a dinosaur!”

  “Their faces won’t be half as surprised as yours are now,” a man’s voice said behind them. Startled, Buck and Toni whipped around. Standing there were three people.

  “Robert!” Buck cried out as Toni shrieked, “Nick!”

  TAKE 19:

  “ALLOSAURUS FRAGILIS, ALSO KNOWN AS BIG AL AND AL O’SAURUS, WAS FIRST NAMED ANTRODEMUS, BUT WAS ALSO NAMED CREOSAURUS, LABROSAURUS, AND EPANTERIAS.”

  Nick was wearing Buck’s sunglasses and had a big smirk on his face. “I think you’ve met my uncle Bob, and this is my cousin Wyett.”

  Nick laughed. Buck could feel his face getting red, but he said nothing.

  “You think you’re the only ones who heard Nash’s story?” Nick continued. “I figured it was you when the first stone rolled down. You looked all around for me when you were hiding near the trailer, but you couldn’t see me, could you?”

  Buck clenched his hands into fists, but still said nothing. Toni was quiet too, but Nick didn’t let up.

  “While you were running from rock to rock, I slipped around in back of you, watching you the entire time. You ran right past me when you went sneaking into our trailer. I just ducked out of sight.”

  “We let you snoop around in there,” Wyett joined in, “because we didn’t know where Nick’s little girlfriend was.”

  “I’m not his girlfriend!” Toni said, her face now as red as Buck’s.

  Nick just laughed. “I was a little surprised you split up. I thought you always had to stay together,” he said sarcastically. “We figured
you’d lead us to her, though, Buck.”

  “If it hadn’t been for that rainstorm,” Wyett said, “we would have caught you sooner.”

  “You did us a big favor running up here,” Robert finally spoke again. “That looks like a mighty fine dinosaur skull you discovered for me. That will make up for all the trouble you and your folks have made for me in Canyonlands. The Terra Cyan group gave me the perfect opportunity and cover—who would suspect the director of a student group?—but when you showed up, I had to scheme and change my plans all around so we wouldn’t get caught on film.”

  “Yeah,” Wyett piped in, “because of you guys, I had to walk out with the petroglyphs in my backpack so my dad could pick you up.”

  “Pictographs, you idiot. Can’t you get that straight?” Nick said scornfully, then turned to Buck. “You and Toni were great helpers, though. You two told me where and when you were going, and I let Uncle Bob know. And thanks for the tip about the dinosaur fossils and tracks!”

  Buck had all he could take. Quick as lightning, he kicked as hard as he could, his foot crashing into Robert’s shin.

  “Run, Toni!”

  Buck bolted away, but Toni didn’t have a chance. Before she could move, Wyett gave her a shove and she landed in the branches of the juniper.

  “Ow!” Toni cried out. Hearing her, Buck stopped a few yards away, a boulder between him and the others.

  “You’d better get back here,” Robert snarled at Buck. “There’s a pretty high cliff over there. A young girl could easily trip and fall over it if she got too close to the edge.”

  Hoping Robert was just bluffing, Buck quietly reached into his pocket and pulled out the cell phone. Keeping it out of sight, he went to his dad’s favorites and punched in Shoop’s name. He started texting, but he only got a few words typed when Toni called out.