Possible Locations of the Great Valley

[Coyote_A]

Now I really wanna go and see that valley for myself. I should probably add this place to my "visit during a trip to US" list.

[Ludichris1]

Now anyone wanna guess which place looks most like the Mysterious Beyond or Land of Mists XD?

[Ghostfishe]

Land of Mists: Kansas?
We don't really know how much ground the dinosaurs cover, but given the creatures they meet on the way (Archelon, Ichthyornis) I'd kind of assume something in that general direction. Are there any marshlands in Colorado?

[rKrizik]

If you're writing a fanfic, I'd say that Ashley Valley is a good place to imagine where the fictional Great Valley might have existed. But I also agree with the other comment someone posted - millions of years ago the arrangement of the earth was quite different (Pangaea), so, if hypothetically the Great Valley had indeed been a real place, for all we know it might have split up like pieces to a puzzle.
Thank you for sharing the photos, by the way - it's intriguing to see the semblance between the Great Valley and Ashley Valley. =) I had actually never heard of Ashley Valley before this, but its' likeness to the Great Valley is interesting!

[tlbtlover809]

Well there is an area in near Quebec and Alabama called the Great (Appalachian) Valley. It spans about 1200 feet. I've never been there myself but i read about it on the web. Just a food for thought

[Dima02]

Well there is an area in near Quebec and Alabama called the Great (Appalachian) Valley. It spans about 1200 feet. I've never been there myself but i read about it on the web. Just a food for thought

Eeyup; been living there for eight years...


 

[Dima02]

Hello everyone.

It has been more than seven years since I first started this thread. A third of my life has since gone by. During this time, I have completed high school and college, and I am now pursuing a graduate degree.

I had some time before school starts against next year, and I had the chance to visit the Southwestern United States. When I saw that I had an opportunity to visit Ashley Valley, I could not resist. I had been looking forward to this since I was a little boy, and I could not wait to get started!

My trip began in Denver, Colorado...

The photo above was taken from the Colorado State Capitol. The area has a lively atmosphere, and the food there was superb. It felt like a very vibrant and modern city.

Previously, I theorized that Littlefoot's journey began near Dodge City, Kansas. I placed the location of the Great Divide near Cedarwood, CO, approximately 130 miles south of Denver, where there was a large canyon.

Boutique Air offers (virtually private) flights from Denver to Ashely Valley for just $70 a seat. However, to better experience Littlefoot's journey, I chose to remain on the ground. However, during the nighttime drive to Ashley Valley, I realized that there is no absolutely shortage of canyons in the region.

We traveled along Route 70, and we frequently encountered scenery like this:


There were many canyons with gaps of a mile or more, and any of these could have caused our dinosaur friends to separate from their parents.

It was almost midnight when we arrived in Vernal, Utah, the largest city in Ashley Valley. We stayed at the local Quality Inn. Rooms were cheap, at $70 for a room for three.

Morning came, and we were greeted by this beautiful scene:


The first thing I noticed was how high we were. Vernal is located 5000 feet above sea level, and the mountain peaks would often be obscured by clouds.

I was also struck by how large the valley was. At its longest, the valley stretches about 15 miles, and it took about 25 minutes to drive from one side of the valley to the other. By foot, it would take around 2.5 hours.

Vernal has a population of around 9000, and it had a good small town feel to it. Apparently, the local economy is fueled by natural gas and tourism, and the city liked to celebrate its connection to the dinosaurs. You can find small dinosaur cartoons on most street signs.


Note the Dinosaur Inn to the left.

I first went to the eastern side of the valley, near the Utah-Colorado border. The staff at the following visitors center were very helpful. This sign was placed at the entrance of the visitors center.


There is still a lot of green in the valley, although most of it has been converted to farmland. Overall, there was a lot of green space, but there were fewer trees than I expected.


(Sorry... To be continued...)

[Dima02]

The view from the visitors' center was very good as well:

You can see across the state border in that picture. Those hills in the background are located all the way in Colorado, and they make up the eastern border of the valley. As you can see in the photo, the rocks differ greatly in color and composition.

One of the sites I was most eager to visit was the Green River.

Hopefully, the truck can give you an idea of the width of the river. It would have been more than sufficient to supply our dinosaur friends and their family.

I crossed the river and continued to travel east. I managed to snap this picture of the valley from a hill from just across the river.


I was soon in the Mysterious Beyond, and the change was immediate. In the panoramic photo below, you can see a distinct difference between the lush terrain of the valley and the arid environment of the Mysterious Beyond.


A close view of the Mysterious Beyond:

I ventured out into the scrubs, and I was surprised to find that the terrain was inhabited by innumerable locusts. I was immediately reminded of the fifth LBT movie, in which swarming leaf gobblers invaded the valley.

Subsequently, I traveled north, following the Green River upstream.

To the right of the photo, you can see the Green River. On the right, you can see the mountains to the north of the valley.

[Hypno]

In a couple of the films we get to see a couple of locations of where the Great Valley is. In one of the films it zooms out of Asia, and in another it shows it in western Canada. I pick Asia as more likely as the weather is mostly tropical there.

[Dima02]

Finally, I arrived at Dinosaur National Monument:


I had theorized that Littlefoot and his friends entered the Great Valley through the mountains in this area, so I hiked up two of them. These beautiful scenes greeted me:



One more photo of me, taken from the bottom of the mountain:


So it's not an exact match to what we saw in the movie, but I was still very happy that I was one of those "lucky hikers." There were many other mountains in the area, but I only had time to climb two. I would definitely recommend checking out the trails there.

Dinosaur National Monument is home to the Dinosaur Quarry and the "wall of bones." Although I did not have enough of a background in paleontology to truly appreciate it, it was very helpful to get a sense of how big the dinosaurs were.

[Dima02]

During my brief time in the park, I encountered many caves such as this one:

Some of them seem to go quite deep. Maybe there are sky color stones in there?   Some of the caves are open to hikers, but you need to do some off-roading to get to them. If you do choose to visit, I would highly suggest doing so in an SUV or truck.

And there were a few strange holes in the ground too. Maybe the descendants of Skip, Milo, Lydia, and Plower live there?


I also visited Split Mountain. The view was spectacular.


I was not able to include the top of the mountain in the photos, but I noticed quite a few large boulders positioned precariously at the top. I was instantly reminded of the rock that our dinosaur friends used to push the original Sharptooth into the river.

Some other miscellaneous photos taken in Dinosaur National Monument:



Finally, when it was time for me to leave, I stopped by Red Fleet Reservoir, which marks the northwestern boundary of the valley. The place looked wonderful during the sunset:


I heard that before the reservoir was constructed, there was a small waterfall in the area. Local legends say that it made a thundering sound...

Overall, I really loved the valley. The scenery was wonderful, the locals were friendly, and lodging was cheap. I would highly recommend visiting in the summer, when you can go rafting in the Green River.

[Littlefoot505]

I really need to get there at some point. I'm in college in Colorado Springs (about an hour south of Denver), so there's no excuse for me to not go before I graduate, except for the fact that I don't have a car.

[Gentle Sharptooth]

Good find. It should be a pilgrimage site for all LBT fans. 

[Littlefoot505]

Good find. It should be a pilgrimage site for all LBT fans. 

I agree. I still really want to get there someday. There’s actually a good chance that I’ll go there for class field trips, as I’ve decided to be a geology major, and I hear that many upper-level geo classes at my college go to Utah. At any rate, I’m pretty bent on going to Vernal/Ashley Valley at some point soon. I actually do have some friends at school who are fellow LBT/dinosaur fans, one of whom has a car, so maybe I could go with them!

[Gentle Sharptooth]

Good find. It should be a pilgrimage site for all LBT fans. 

I agree. I still really want to get there someday. There’s actually a good chance that I’ll go there for class field trips, as I’ve decided to be a geology major, and I hear that many upper-level geo classes at my college go to Utah. At any rate, I’m pretty bent on going to Vernal/Ashley Valley at some point soon. I actually do have some friends at school who are fellow LBT/dinosaur fans, one of whom has a car, so maybe I could go with them!

You are blessed to have LBT fans in the flesh. I would, if you can make a road trip to The Great Valley. If you do, beware of Sharptooth.

[Flathead770]

Good find. It should be a pilgrimage site for all LBT fans. 

I've never visited it myself, but I have gone on a more personal pilgrimage to Flathead River/Lake in Montana Ok, I actually only drove past it. Thinking back, I kinda wish I took a picture by a sign or something.


Anyways, not that I actually think this is/was the Great Valley but it certainly does have a very similar feeling to it.



This was taken just this last weekend when I went hiking near Banff, Alberta.

[Nanotyrannus]

In a couple of the films we get to see a couple of locations of where the Great Valley is. In one of the films it zooms out of Asia, and in another it shows it in western Canada. I pick Asia as more likely as the weather is mostly tropical there.

The two films that give these locations are The Stone of Cold Fire and Journey of the Brave, respectively:

In the seventh movie, during the "Beyond the Mysterious Beyond" number, the camera pans out and goes off into space (on the "we can set our sights beyond the sky, or maybe even higher" lyric), in the process zooming out of a point on Earth; the part of the planet the camera pans out of is somewhere in eastern China. In the fourteenth, after the Universal logo and before the opening narration, the camera pans into Victoria Island in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

There are a couple of other locations suggested in the film universe itself, both instances that come to mind being in the opening narrations of their respective movies; the camera pans into what looks like India in V and it pans into what vaguely resembles Africa in XII.