Summer Ramble 2020 (Image heavy)

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Insects

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Wamsutter, Wyoming - "turritella agate" hunting local was another fine out of the way place for social distancing

 

Some of the locals are hard to spot, but they are friendly

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We started out combing the hillside until we found signs of potential

 

After gathering MANY loose shells on the surface, I finally realized that if I dug into some of the darker areas with heavy fossil bits on the surface I was able to find some chunks of matrix with multiple shells.  What I found funny is I only found 1 of the shell type I was theoretically looking for, most were a different species. Overall it made for a nice hour break from riding in the car

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Split Rock (funny - its just the name, has nothing to do with fossils), but it's along the Oregon Trail and was a place my son's ancestors rode through on a wagon train when they headed west

 

Thermopolis - the colors of the thermal feature went a little odd because I shot it just before sunset, but the colors really are strange as we saw when we drove back through later in the week

 

Finally after a long day of zigzagging around Wyoming we stopped at our cabin for the next few days in Worland.  Here we had slightly more domesticated neighbors

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Worland served as our base to head for Big Cedar Ridge, a cretaceous plant site I had limited time to collect at on our last drive across Wyoming and had been wanting to return to.  The site is very remote and requires a 15 mile drive across BLM dirt roads to find, but the scenery is amazing

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A modern coyote skull and partial skeleton

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finally getting to the site

 

Views from the ash layer

 

The surface

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The last time I was at this site there was a fresh dig I was able to jump into.  This time the layer I had dug last time was bare eroded clay popcorn over top of 10 to 12 inches on super sticky wet mud I had to dig down through to open up a spot I could work.  Thankfully I had planned for a day instead of the hour and a half I had last trip, so I was able to make it work. Others had obviously been exploring at a higher level and there were many of these small digs all along the ridge above where I was working. I did find some fossils at some of them, but the layer I worked was more productive.  

  

 

If you ever do get the opportunity to collect here, please fill your holes back in as the matrix is very prone to erosion and very soft even under the best of conditions.  If you leave a hole exposed and fossils near the edge and possibly significantly below will be ruined quickly by the weather.  I know filling a hole back in seems like a lot of work at the end of the day, but its pays off in the long run for anyone who comes after you.

 

Reminder, if you are on range land, pay attention to the cows. They are big and can be ornery. (Last trip we had one chase the car for half a mile.  The ones we saw this trip seemed more complacent

 

 

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On our way back out we took a slight detour across the BLM land to the nearby Castle Gardens

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Some of the finds from Big Cedar Ridge

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Next up was a beautiful drive through the Wind River reservation on our way south east to Nebraska

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Along 80 we took a brief stop to visit Hell's Half Acre

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After a brief stop in Nebraska we headed down to Ada, Oklahoma for a few days.  When the southern leg of our trip got derailed due to covid cancellations I extended our stay in Ada and used it as a base to make a couple day trip excursions into Texas.

 

First up was Post Oak creek hoping for my 1st Ptychodus tooth.  Unfortunately the water was high which made access a little challenging and caused the many people that did go to this popular hunting ground to pile up on top of one another.  After doing our best to distance ourselves, my wife actually went back to the car because nobody was allowing for any personal space and I waded further downstream through some deep water to find myself a more isolated spot.  It wasn't the most productive trip, but all in all for the conditions I think we did alright.  I believe the 3rd pic is possibly petrified palm wood.  Not sure what the bone is from

[Andy B]

WOW

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The next day was another Texas excursion, this time to a couple of spots on the North Sulphur River.  Unfortunately the water was still a little high for gravel bar searching, but had not been high enough to tear up the stream bed and expose anything new so things were well picked over and I didn't find a whole lot worth noting

 

The 1st stop was the furthest upstream.  The entire area was super sticky black mud that stuck in concentric layers to my shoes though the flora was nice

 

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Ladonia Fossil Park should come with a warning that the "steps" might be a bit much for the faint of heart, but after climbing DT I figured I was good to go

These "steps" are almost 3 feet high, and the drop at the bottom is over 8.

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Assortment of weirdness I picked up

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possibly modern horse tooth?

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And finally, the whole point of heading for Ada in the first place was to do a half day dig with Leon Theissen at his Bois D'Arc Devonian quarry.  This was my favorite day of digging this trip and a wonderful way to cap off a fun fossil hunting tour.  Leon says he only takes about 20 people onto his property per year, but if you get the opportunity you won't be dissapointed.  Luckily we were able to expand our half day to a full day dig and Leon is a very knowledgeable and charismatic host who likes to spin a yarn in perfect deadpan just to see how gullible you might be.

 

To start you drive in across some remote range land to access Leon's property

 

Then you get to the ridge he exposed with heavy equipment.  Every part we searched was productive.  The sheer volume of fossils here is pretty amazing, but the number and variety of trilobites in amazing preservation is what makes the site special.  Fair warning, there are a number of dangers you should be aware of before you go including, but not limited to wild pigs, rattlesnakes, scorpions (we found a number of them), and brown recluse spiders (saw several of those as well).  Wear gloves, wear high leather hiking boots and always flip rocks slowly toward you so you can flip it back if necessary.

 

Leon chatting away while investigating something my wife found (she found some very nice pieces throughout the day, and Leon was infinitely patient answering questions from both of us)

 

 

[RandyB]

All told we found somewhere around 50 seemingly complete trilobites, plus a large number of pieces and various other fauna types.  I will get plenty of prepping practice