Searching for Blue Forest Wood

[Allosaurus]

For those who enjoy solitude and quiet away from large crowds of people, visiting the Blue Forest of Wyoming is probably one of the best choices. I personally love the most remote places possible, so I enjoy Blue Forest but those of you accustomed to living in or near a busy city may find it unsettling (or so I've been told). It can get busy during the summer, but overall it tends to be pretty quiet especially the further away from the road you go. I was able to visit the site last month and I found some very cool things. The drive out to the site really isn't too long in my opinion, but it's really not a site to spend 20 minutes at expecting to find a lot of big logs. Most of the really big logs have been found, so a lot of patience and persistence can (but won't always) pay off. Let me just say that if you plan to dig, it gets pretty warm out there. You'll need to take breaks throughout the day and rehydrate if you aren't acclimated to the dry heat. There was no wind when I was there and only occasionally would a few clouds dot across the sky so don't count on shade being there unless you bring a canopy with you. 

 

The first couple days started off a bit lackluster as far as digging was concerned. I wasn't finding much by digging, but when I surface collected I found a lot of nice small pieces. Different people have different methods of searching for petrified wood here. Some dig blindly, some probe and then dig, some witch for petrified wood, some probe existing holes, and some just surface collect. Each method has its merits. There has been a lot of digging here over the years, so the landscape is dotted with holes all over, some of which have been filled (if you dig here, please refill your holes so BLM doesn't try to shut the site down). I was finding a lot of nice small pieces on the surface where other people had been digging, but I was hopeful of digging up my own log. I'd heard about a few other people finding some small logs when I was there, but most said the same thing: they'd all disentegrated when they tried to remove them. The petrified wood here can be pretty delicate. It is encased in layers of algae, but extracting the wood from the algae can be difficult and often results in separation of the agate layer from the wood or even the log splintering completely. 

 

 

[Allosaurus]

At the end of my trip, I'd found some nice pieces mostly on the surface though did find a couple tiny limbs in algae that I dug out. As I was leaving, I stopped at one place and planned to only check it for a few minutes. I hadn't explored that area yet, and I was already there so what harm could it do? When I got out and started to look and probe, I had a feeling about that spot. So I meandered around a bit until I felt something distinctly hard in the ground. Fast forward 8 hours later (remember I was supposed to be on my way out), and I had finally uncovered the log that I had hoped to find on the trip. It's about 2.5 to 3 inches in diameter so it isn't one of those giant ones, but it is a very respectable size and was exactly what I'd hoped to find. While I dug, I think this was the hottest day while I had been there. It was in the mid 90's with no cloud cover and no breeze, so I went through the last of my water very quickly. In fact I actually ran out of water that day but I still had a couple hours worth of digging until I could finish the log so I kept at it. It was near the end of the day and the temperature was starting to cool, so I put up with the discomfort of no water for a few extra hours. 

 

Figuring out how to get the log out of the ground was tough, because I didn't want to risk breaking off any agate on the outside, but I had to get it out somehow. Compounded with the problem that the log was going deeper in the ground and went directly underneath a giant dirt pile, which made for even more digging. But eventually, I exposed the entire log at 31 inches in length. Then came the decision of how to get it out of the ground. Ultimately I worked to free it from the algae while in the ground, hoping the log wouldn't splinter on me as I did. 

[Allosaurus]

Frankly, I got pretty darn lucky getting the log out. It came out in several pieces, but those pieces were beautiful and it never splinted. The very last section split in half on me and while at first I was disappointed, I was pleasantly surprised later when I found a cool knot/branch now clearly exposed in the center of that piece. 

[Allosaurus]

I carefully packaged all the pieces in newspaper and labeled the box so that I wouldn't put anything else on top of it and thus risk crushing the log. Once home, I set about cleaning the log and scraping away all the dirt and roots possible. There is still some algae occasionally throughout, but I may just leave it as is because I do like the algae on there to. After I washed away the dirt, I was surprised at how beautiful the log was. The agate completely covered most of the log and was more than just a blue color. It had hughes of orange, white, blue, and black mixed throughout. Plus, after careful scrutiny I found some tiny quartz crystals on the agate as well (though no calcite). I've had people suggest cutting slices, but that would ruin the beauty of the log as it looks right now, so I'll be leaving it as is. 

[Tidgy's Dad]

Beautiful. 

[Nimravis]

Great finds, I have some at home that I had purchased.

[deutscheben]

Wow, that blue is truly beautiful. Well worth the effort, I think!

[minnbuckeye]

15 hours ago, Allosaurus said:

but those of you accustomed to living in or near a busy city may find it unsettling (or so I've been told)

 

     Very nice finds!! What did you use to probe with? IF I ever make it back, I would like to be a little more prepared.  We had the opportunity to visit the "Forest" a few years ago and only surface collected a few nice pieces. My wife will NEVER return. Desolation definitely got to her. What if we run out of gas (tank at 1/4th full)? What if we have a flat tire (there is a spare)? What if we get hurt? All questions that kept coming my way, not to mention zero phone service. She never felt comfortable in such remote country, and we live in rural America!!! I guess rocks as far as the eye can see is different than corn as far as the eye can see. I, on the other hand, loved it. Wished I had a week there instead of my one hour.  Again, great finds! 

 

Mike

[Allosaurus]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

 

@minnbuckeye I was using a couple brass rods (maybe 1/8 in thick?), though I've seen other people use steel rods up to 1/2 inch or more in diameter. Each has its pros and cons. The smaller diameter of course means it can be harder to push into the ground without bending, but the larger you go means it is much more difficult to drive into the ground. I still have questions left over from the site, so I'm hoping to return and answer some of those by trial and error. We'll have to see. If you have more questions about the site/finding stuff there, feel free to PM me. I don't have a lot of experience out there, but I've been there a couple times and I think I have a better feel for ways to approach it.

 

Yeah it is pretty remote, so you definitely have to be prepared to remain fairly independent if trouble should arise. Fortunately it isn't 100 miles off the highway, so walking back out to the highway is do able if the need were to ever arise. Plus the main area gets a fair number of people, so chances of running into someone who has a car within a couple days is fairly high. Worst case I suppose one could hang out at one of the oil wells and wait for a trucker to come (though I'm not sure how often they frequent each well; one might be waiting a long time). 

[Plax]

Not familiar with algae on petrified wood?

[minnbuckeye]

@Plax,   You can see the algae coating the wood.        Around 50 million years ago (during the Eocene Epoch) forests of trees in Eden Valley and the Green River area of Wyoming most likely encountered volcanic explosions or similar activity that downed trees, with the trees eventually becoming submerged in water.  Over time, an algae would encase the trees completely, the beginning of the first stages of petrification. This was a slow process that replaced the dead organic material from the tree with quartz, silica, agate, and other minerals. Once the mineral-filled water had entirely replaced the branches, the limbs, and even whole tree sections, intricate details like tree rings or insect borings were permanently preserved. The origins of the various colors are directly related to the types of minerals that were present during this process. from blueforestpetrifiedwood.com.

[minnbuckeye]

@Allosaurus, Thanks for the offer!! Maybe I can arrange a trip when you are out there. My wife would love that I'd have company!!! Just a thought. 

 

Mike

[PrehistoricWonders]

Beautiful finds!!!

[Plax]

Never heard of algae contributing to petrifaction. Learn something new every day. 

[Allosaurus]

1 hour ago, Plax said:

Never heard of algae contributing to petrifaction. Learn something new every day. 

Yeah it's pretty cool. At this site there are a couple stages of mineralization. The first yields the blue agate that forms in when the wood shrinks from being dry, giving enough space for the agate to mineralize between the wood and the algae. The next stage is the yellow calcite that can form, and finally the quartz that occasionally shows up. 

[Allosaurus]

2 hours ago, minnbuckeye said:

@Allosaurus, Thanks for the offer!! Maybe I can arrange a trip when you are out there. My wife would love that I'd have company!!! Just a thought. 

 

Mike

Sure! It's always fun to have company out digging. I may end up back out there in August this year depending (it'll be pretty warm, but that petrified wood won't dig itself up), or possibly next year in early summer. 

[Monica]

Stunning scenery and beautiful blue forest wood - thanks for showing us!

[Jackson g]

Gorgeous! The woodworker in me would want to cut thin organized sheets/chunks and inlay them as decorative trim on a coffee table.

[Allosaurus]

35 minutes ago, Jackson g said:

Gorgeous! The woodworker in me would want to cut thin organized sheets/chunks and inlay them as decorative trim on a coffee table.

A lot of people slice wood from this site. I have a few small pieces that I plan to slice when I get the time, so I'll have to post photos when I get around to it. I've seen photos of some of the wood cut into cabs, though I think most leave it as round slices for display. 

[Oxytropidoceras]

A couple of recent publications about the Blue Forest locality are:

 

Mustoe, G.E., Viney, M. and Mills, J., 2019. Mineralogy of Eocene fossil

wood from the “Blue Forest” locality, southwestern Wyoming, United

States. Geosciences, 9(1), p.35.

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/9/1/35

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/9/1/35/pdf

 

Viney, M., 2020. The Blue Forest of Ancient Lake Gosiute: Sweetwater

County, Wyoming. Rocks & Minerals, 95(2), pp.154-162.

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

[Paleome]

Absolutely stunning specimens!  I am very fortunate to have inherited someone's collection which includes fossil wood from the Blue Forest.  Would love to go there, myself! Thank you for all the info and images.

Paleome

 

[Allosaurus]

I finally got around to slabbing a couple smaller pieces I collected that were totally encased on algae (and I don't think I could have broken off the algae without destroying the logs). They aren't polished yet, but they are shown wet. 

 

1, 2, and 5 are shown in normal daylight. 3 is under UV light, and 4 is shown with a flashlight shining through the specimen. 

[Allosaurus]

On 7/2/2020 at 5:47 PM, Oxytropidoceras said:

A couple of recent publications about the Blue Forest locality are:

 

Mustoe, G.E., Viney, M. and Mills, J., 2019. Mineralogy of Eocene fossil

wood from the “Blue Forest” locality, southwestern Wyoming, United

States. Geosciences, 9(1), p.35.

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/9/1/35

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3263/9/1/35/pdf

 

Viney, M., 2020. The Blue Forest of Ancient Lake Gosiute: Sweetwater

County, Wyoming. Rocks & Minerals, 95(2), pp.154-162.

 

Yours,

 

Paul H.

I don't think I've read Viney, 2020 yet, I'll have to do that. I can definitely say Mustoe et al, 2019 is a great resource; really helped explain the varying mineralizations we see.