"Dinosaur Footprints Tha Uthen" Nakhon Phanom Things to Do Tip by Cathy&Gary

Now it is time for us to leave Nakhon Phanom and drive to Nong Khai which is another 350 kilometers away, but there will be a stop along the way as we have heard there is a place with Dinosaur Footprints, hope we can find it!!

Well we were about 20 kilometers outside Nakhon Phanom, the Dinosaur Footprints place is on the map, so we should be there now, it looks like somehow we have missed it and Gary is refusing to go back looking for it. So we just keep heading for Nong Khai following the Mekong. Then about another 80 kilometers out we see a sign and turn off the main road.

Amazing there is the Dinosaur Footprints Park at Tha Uthen, we have found it. Well this is amazing and for the first time I am seeing footprints that are millions of years old. The park is nicely set up with different viewing areas and info on what you are looking at.

Some of the Dinosaur footprints found here are the Ornithomimosaurs which with their toothless beaks and slender feet made them look like giant featherless birds with clawed hands and a long tail. They are among the fastest dinosaurs being able to run up to 70 kilometers an hour. Sauropods were the biggest land animals and very slow moving, their long tails were to help keep them balanced and to also protect them from predators.

The amount of footprints found at Tha Uthen show that over 100 million years ago this old river bank provided very good feeding grounds.

There is a lot of work happening at this place, huge fiber glass dinosaurs ready to be put together, workers everywhere, buildings going up. So it looks like they are turning it into a huge tourist attraction. I hope more people visit here as it is definitely off the beaten track and was not easy to find, but totally worth going to.