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It has been a busy past year for me and realized I had not posted some trips from last year so will post a few pictures from my travels. The 2023 spring trip for beach combing down the Alaska Penninsula did not disappoint with glass floats recently washed out by winter storms ready to pickup. There still are glass floats present there that get exposed from past burial by storms, just need to be the next plane by to find and pick them up. The Alaska Geographical Society had another field trip in Denali National Park hosted by Dr. Pat Druckenmiller on dinosaur tracks. I previously posted the trip so will share just one picture. My wife and 3 dogs made a road trip to the end of the Kenia Penninsula to look for plant fossils. I made acquaintances with @Sjfriend getting some tips on where to look, THANKS! We ended up hiking northwest about 2 miles during low tide from Bishop’s Beach, seeing lots of coal and plant fossils eroding out of the beach cliff face. Kilo in the foreground with 11 year old Kobuk back from checking out a Bald Eagle, Cook Inlet by Homer, AK. Kilo tagging along on the first trip fossil hunting. I got three trips into the Talkeetna Mountains hiking last summer. Finding this intact Pseudophyllites indure was worthy of preparation. I took the local rock club president on the second trip as a thank you for cutting a flat surface on the bottom of the P. indure. He was pleased with finding several nice ammonites. Gaudryceras tenduiliratum. One of the few ribbed ammonites present that make it easy to identify. Inoceramus with most large ones in worse shape than this one. As it turns out you don’t have to go far to find fossils around here. Some have shown up in my wife’s flower garden. The third trip was fantastic in that I found another prep worthy ammonite. Not this one, too big for my desk. This beauty, a combo of ammonite and bivalve clams with petrified wood and worm tubes present. Tentative ID Pachydiscus sp. with Inoceramus sp. associated on the ammonite. Difficult for me to get the species as there are subtle differences among the multiple Pachydiscus ammonites in Alaska. Now to the Brooks Range on a sheep hunt which I had previously posted a photo essay on the trip. Coral fossils were abundant, almost everywhere you looked. l Dall sheep left to grow older. Trip into the western Alaska Range with Kilo. Fall colors in the mountains, blink and you will miss it. Lasts only 2 weeks in early September. Kilo with ptarmigan catch of the day. Last trip before freeze up in middle October was shared with one other fishermen evidenced by the tracks. Many of my trips include fishing and hunting with bonus fossil hunting depending on the geology of the areas I’m in. Hope you enjoyed as I have big fingers and have little patience with typing this on my phone where the pictures are and spell check changing the ammo names. Uggh!!! Winter just around the corner.

I went on a hunting trip this August in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge of northern Alaska. This was in the Brooks Range which was mainly composed of limestone in the 2 areas we hiked. Our base camps were setup with aircraft tied down, bear fence around camp and all food in bear proof containers when we left on the hikes. Fossil corral was present in all the river bars we traversed. Hash block with shell material. Stromatoporid fossils were abundant. Dall sheep ram tracks. Crinoid Cotton grass and cloud berries at 4,500 elevation meadow. Ewe sheep crossing the meadow after we did. The first 4 days of the trip was hampered by smoke from fires burning in the Yukon Territory, Canada. We camped in the same meadow and awoke to no smoke and fog the rolled in from the coastal plane over night. I was constantly examining the abundant fossils on this trip which was a big part of my enjoyment. It would be interesting to know time it took for the limestone to be etched from this corral. There is liquid water maybe 4 month of the year at this latitude and elevation. The limestone cap rocks erode vertically leaving these dramatic land forms. These stromatoporid fossils were present in all areas we traversed. Most common were the black forms of various ovoid and loculated shape. Dall sheep rams below where we camped one evening. Sheep in camp the following morning. More amazing land forms from the on end limestone. Fossil corral eroding slower than the limestone. The whole scree slope had pieces of corral in the limestone. A massive landslide with some blocks of limestone being bigger than most homes. This area is part of the Porcupine caribou herd and had trails used for 100's of years cut into the mountains. Parka squirrel as the natives call them, used to make winter parkas in the past. Last one, shell fossils were uncommon and when I saw them heavily metamorphized. For the hunters we saw 27 rams and elected to harvest none as no older ones located in 10 days of hiking.

Just back from an epic hike in the Talkeetna Mountains after a recent storm passed through. The snow line was at 5,500 feet and at this time of year the snow is referred to as termination dust because it will stick in the higher peaks foreshadowing winter’s arrival. I have enough confidence now to name some of the fossils I have encountered on these hikes and would like any corrections on IDs if I misidentified them. The background geology I gleaned from Geological Survey Professional Paper 432, Upper Cretaceous (Campanian and Maestrichtian) Ammonites From Southern Alaska. An early morning start to take advantage of the spectacular weather. Castle Mountain, volcanic deposit which overlays the fossil bearing layers I will be hiking through. The Wrangell Mountains in the distance overlooking the Copper River Basin and Talkeetna Mountains in the foreground. Landed a ridge and tied down multiple times as even though good weather was forecast I need to have the plane where I left it so I can return home. The fossils on this trip are in the Matanuska Formation, specifically in member 3 and divided into two faunal zones. The lower, Inoceramus schmidti zone and upper, Pachydiscus kamishakensis zone. I believe this is a Pachydiscus sp. ammonite and have seen these before. Many of the concretions contain fossils and locally abundant. Having said that it was many miles hiking before a came across an intact ammonite. Bits and pieces to look at and ponder. Canadoceras sp. but so broken could have been a heteromoph and a completely different ammonite species. I mentioned the good weather for this trip and here is an example of what a storm can do. Normally you do not see what the silt stone looks like in un-weathered condition as it take quite an erosion event to expose the rock from the overburden. The preceding week had some heavy precipitation with this area obviously receiving enough to cut down to the bedrock. All the small gullies I crossed on this hike were also affected by the recent run off and snow at the higher elevations. This is at the base of the silt layer where it is overlain by the volcanic rock. The Dall sheep use the steep gullies and cliffs as escape habitat from predators. Kobuk, (my dog) was interested in the sheep and I recalled him so as to leave the ewes with their lambs to their solitude. Continuing on to my objective where I saw what looked like more silt stone exposure with concretions from the air. I like this picture which gives a feel for how steep the exposures are. You never know what is on the next one! Uncommon but I have found some petrified wood in this area. I could not determine what layer this was associated with as it was just laying in the tundra. If you look in some of the pictures you will see numerous caribou trails with this calf cruising by on one while Kobuk and I were having lunch. Caribou can be quit curious at times and this one approached to 12 feet. Notice Kobuk’s paws are ready to go! Still curious and had to take another look at us. Blue berries are ripe now and a bonus snack while in the mountains. My objective for this hike was this area and exposures. From the air it looked like numerous concretions in the silt stone but turned out to be chunks of conglomerates from the layers above. Four and one half miles from the plane so will loop back and check a few more exposures out. The six mile ammonite! Patagiosites alaskensis. The exposure on the right side here immediately caught my attention as I could see concretions. Getting closer and some more caribou, cow with her calf. More importantly definitely concretions here. Abundant Inoceramus in the float at the bottom of the cliff. Will come back another time to see what might be on the face but need to get new soles on my boots as my current ones are rounded and it’s hazardous when like that climbing that steep of an exposure. These Cretaceous deposits are very similar to those of Vancouver Island and the Chignik Formation on the Alaska Penninsula. In rereading the professional paper after this hike I got a better understanding of the geology and concretions there. Some of the concretions have thin crystal layers which look a little like shell in cross section. These are described as cone-in-cone concretions and are likely calcite layers which form concentrically in the concretion and their white flash appearance can be seen in the distance when looking shell material. Looking back from where I traversed can see the Chugach Mountains and recent snow. Nine miles and almost back to my ride home. Hope you enjoy as much as I did, what a day!

Today I took a trip to a new outcrop of the Leighton Formation! My main interest in this new outcrop is to find the source of my original material. The first outcrop I visited actually turned out to be an erratic. When I first visited there in February the ground was completely frozen. I found a large piece of shale sticking out of the ground, which I proceeded to split, but the rock itself did not come out. This rock yielded about 50 pounds of material on the first trip. When I returned in June I excavated around the supposed outcrop, and found that it was in a fact an erratic rock. I also found three other large pieces that were also from the Leighton Formation. Since my first site turned out to be a dud, I am now trying to find new sites. This is the first of three possibly accessible sites to visit. I am mainly looking for the presence of thelodont scales - specifically, those that belong to the species Phlebolepis elegans. I am also looking for a few species that I don't have in my collection yet or I require for research: the tentaculite species T. elongatus, the trilobite species Acastae zerinae, two species in the genus Actinopteria, the undescribed Calymene species that has been mentioned in earlier posts, and eurypterid fragments. Today was an absolutely beautiful day to do it. It was cool and overcast in the morning, but then cleared up towards the end of the trip - perfect collecting conditions. Here are some pictures of the walk (in chronological order). Once at the outcrop, the Leighton shale member was quite obvious. It was one excellent outcrop, although I didn't find all the species I was looking for. I might have found thelodont scales, but I will not know for certain until I examine the material closely. The fauna of this formation was similar to that in the erratics I found, with a few marked differences. One is the abundance of the brachiopod species Chonetes bastini, it was the by far most common brachiopod. Also, the characteristic Salopina brachiopod fauna was barely represented in this outcrop - I might have got two specimens of them. Camarotoeichia leightoni was more common, but still relatively scarce compared to the C. bastini. Only the tentaculite species T. elongatus was in the outcrop, the other species of Tentaculite (which I have not identified), was completely absent. The bivalve species Modiolopsis leightoni was amazingly prolific. On to the geology of the site. Almost the entire outcrop was of made of a highly fractured gray shale that split extremely easily. In this slate, there were occasional pockets of a type of siltstone. The siltstone pockets usually contained a large amount of gastropods of the genus Australonema, with possible fish fragments. There were extremely fossiliferous layers every 5 - 10 centimeters. In between these layers there were still some fossils, but generally there were less molluscs or ostracods. Most of the C. bastini brachiopods were in between the fossiliferous layers. I only collected from one of the outcrops that was there, two others were situated to the left and right of this one. They had the same general geology and fauna - at least, according to my rather quick check. Below are a few pictures of the outcrop I collected at: the first is from the front of it, and the second is from behind it. Here are a few insitu photos of some of the fossils. The first is of what I guess is an A. zerinae trilobite cephalon, prep will reveal if it actually is. The second is of one of the highly fossiliferous layers I was talking about - notice the enormous profusion of ostracods, with a few brachiopods and mollusks. On the way back there were a few red shale pieces I took a look at. I think they are from the Hersey Formation, probably brought in by the tidal current. The first picture shows one of the rocks, and the second is of a brachiopod external mold peeking out. I hope to update this thread with further pictures of the fossils collected. To be continued.... Thanks for reading!

I am beginning to compile a treasure map. I am basing my information on a document that was written in 1962. Many of the roads, townships, places mentioned are different today. I have bought a book that hopefully will give me some insight. This book was written in 1982 and covers 40 years of history in the region. Even if I can find all the locations mentioned in the 1962 document, chances are they are private property. The easiest one is on a public road and so if all else fails, success is guaranteed. My second aspect of the trip will be to see the foliage in full colour. Planning to trip about September 15th. It is amazing when I get stuck in a rabbits hole, how much I learn in a very short time. I am documenting this search for reference, but it is under wraps until later. I likely will only show the products later. Also, the well publicized location, since it is already out on many sources.

My wife, dogs and I got out recently to camp overnight and hike in the Talkeetna Mountains. Still very cool for this time of year at 40 degrees in the late morning upon arriving with frost the next morning. The cool weather made for nice hiking weather and we put some miles in on caribou trails and ridges. At one point I checked out a gully with Cynthia staying up high where she collected two hands full of belamite pieces retaining two of the end pieces. I took pictures of the ammonites I saw in a 1/2 hour side hill jaunt returning to camp at our plane with 7.5 miles covered. I have been studying ammonite anatomy and nomenclature so getting closer to be able to make educated guesses as to what I have been seeing. I believe this area is in Member 3 of the Matanuska Formation probably the Pachydiscus kamishakensis zone per the reference recommended by FossilDAWG. I have several ammonites with the umbilcus cleaned out which will help with identification. A new one to me is ribbed, evolute and unfortunatly broken. Most of what I have been seeing are partially evolute or convolute if I am using the terms correctly, some being fairly large. Will post one picuture of a partially prepared one that I am going to make a grade school guess is from the genus Pachydiscus or Psendophyllites and when fully prepped will post better pictures to help identify. All of this is new to me so enjoying the education very much. Reeeealy steep terrain I did not go out on the hard consolidated areas as poor grip with my boots. Breath taking view and also don't slip here. Belemnites deposit are above the ammonites Orca our stylish Boston Terrier Partially prepared ammonoid with an intact umbilcus

There are brown bears to watch out for. As requested some scenery pictures from a previous trips in the Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska, USA . As I get more versed in the strata and fossil nomenclature will include with the posts and finds. Notice the snow still present in June of last year and I am ready to get out again weather permitting which was a no go this weekend so sat and read numerous post on TFF for my education. Love the site and will figure out the decorum and how to interact as this is new to me.