Location:
Injasuti Wilderness Area, lower central Drakensberg. Because of its rare and exquisite dinosaur footprints, this cave is not marked on the maps of the area out of concern that thoughtless visitors may damage or deface them. This is one of the few known locations of dinosaur footprints in the Natal Drakensberg. If you are fortunate enough to visit them, please treat them with the wonderment they deserve. They have been there for millions of years and it would be a sad indictment of humanity if they were to be damaged by a selfish visitor.
GPS Coordinates: WGS 84
Undisclosed
Description:
Around 200-million years ago, near the end of the Triassic period, several examples from two dinosaur species walked across a drying mud flat, leaving their footprints embedded clearly in the mud behind them. The one species was three-toed and the other stump-footed, but they have not been positively identified so far as this author can tell.
Their footprints were then covered over by layers of sand. Over the eons, the various layers solidified into stratified rock. A river eventually cut back under some of these layers and they separated, leaving the footprints exposed as if they were made just yesterday. The exposed layer itself has split and settled at different angles, so a little, careful exploration from different viewing angles is necessary to take in the whole, incredible scene.
If you have an interest in the palaeontology of this region, there is a Dinosaur Centre in the Golden Gate Highlands National Park outside Clarens in the Eastern Free State, and dinosaur tours are available from the town itself. Both include exhibits of the types of dinosaurs which might have left their footprints at Dinosaur Cave.