Rocky Mountain National Park/Dinosaur National Monument...must see points for short visit

[StuckInTheEast]

The Mrs. and I will be taking the kids for an adventure mid June. Our itinerary lands us in Denver and will give us a solid full day in Rocky Mountain national park before heading west to Dinosaur National Monument for a day. From there we head up to southwest Wyoming to poke around a few towns on our potential move list before spending a couple days in Grand Teton and flying back home from there.
I'm sure days or more could be spent at both but we only have one for each this go round so fishing for some first hand input on what to definitely see and possibly what's overrated or not priority for a day trip.
I realize these will differ from person to person, just looking for some input not generated by Google or travel bloggers.
Any lodging/activity/dining recommendations for Lander, Pinedale and Duboise are welcomed as well. We will be in those general areas but still working out the specifics there.
Thanks in advance!

 

[Nickofthewoods]

RMNP is great and all but if you haven't taken kids to the Mile High Flea Market then you haven't lived my friend.

 

[3forks]

If you’re going to be around Kemmerer, there are a few quarries where you can pay to dig for fossils.

We haven’t done it, but some friends have and they said they had a blast. They also said it’s pretty much guaranteed that you get something cool and you keep what you find.

 

[PVHunter]

I'd suggest entering through the Vernal side of Dinosaur. I'd spend time at the quarry, of course, because it's a special place. I didn't expect to enjoy the petroglyphs as much as I did. I guess if I were writing the billboard blurb for dinosaur, I'd say, "Come for the dinos, stay for the rock paintings." I've done the drive a few times and I'm always struck by how beautiful the landscape is heading west out of Dinosaur, CA toward Vernal. Lots to explore. Enjoy!

 

[StuckInTheEast]

We arent really the fleet market type...small town farmers market, you might have my attention. Thank you for the suggestion though.

I like the quarry dig idea, both kids will rock hound for hours so we will likely give that a deeper look. We were debating working Fossil Butte into the mix. Looking like that will pan out now...I mentioned digging fossils and kids perked up...wife had room in Kremmerer booked 5 minutes later, thanks for the tip!

We are looking to enter dinosaur from the south first day, stay in Vernal that night then go into west side next day before heading back out and up to Rock springs for that night. My wife and I would enjoy rock paintings...my kids just wanna see dinosaur bones so we'll try to focus there.

 

[sndmn11]

I'd skip RMNP and do Royal Gorge instead.

 

[StuckInTheEast]

I'd skip RMNP and do Royal Gorge instead.

Unfortunately that's a bit to far south out of the way for this trip. The Colorado stops are more due to flying into to Denver and wanting to get the kids to Dinosaur...being right there it just seemed logical to check another national park off the list.