2 Best Sights in Dinosaurland and Eastern Utah, Utah

Browns Park Recreation Area

If you're looking for a glimpse of the Wild West, head to Browns Park. Lying along a quieter stretch of the Green River and extending into Colorado, this area features plenty of high-desert scenery, a national waterfowl refuge, and a history complete with notorious outlaws of the late 1800s. You can explore several buildings on the John Jarvie Historic Ranch site and visit the museum, where a video details the ranch's history. Buildings date from 1880 to the early 1900s, and there's also a cemetery containing the graves of a few men who met violent ends nearby. In addition to his ranch, Jarvie ran a post office, store, and river ferry, and his spread was a major hideout on the so-called Outlaw Trail. The area also includes several campgrounds, OHV (off-highway vehicle) trails, and river-rafting opportunities. Reach Browns Park by driving 65 miles north of Vernal on U.S. 191, then 22 miles east on a gravel road, following signs to the ranch.

Swett Ranch

This isolated homestead belonged to Oscar and Emma Swett and their nine children through most of the 1900s. The U.S. Forest Service has turned the ranch into a working historical site, complete with restored and decorated houses and buildings.