Summer Ramble 2020 (Image heavy)

[RandyB]

[RandyB]

[RandyB]

[RandyB]

Overall a very successful roadtrip with a number of firsts for my collection.  And now I have enough material to keep me busy prepping for a long long time

 

If you made it this far I hope you enjoyed the roadtrip pics, we certainly enjoyed the opportunity to get out and visit some wide open spaces.

 

Stay safe out there,

 

- Randy

[FossilMo]

Loved all the pictures. Looks to me like you had a fantastic year! 

[Ludwigia]

What an epic journey! Thanks very much for sharing your experiences. Great photos! I'd love to ramble through the midwest someday. By the way, I think that the crystals on your Pierre Shale finds are rather Calcite than Selenite.

[Monica]

 

What a trip!!!

 

I spent so long looking through all of these amazing photos that I got bumped out of the forum! 

 

But I'm back to say - WOW WOW WOW!!!

 

What an unbelievable adventure, Randy!!!  As I was reading through your posts, I thought to myself: "This one's my favourite."  Then I'd read the next post, and I'd say: "No, scratch that - this one's my favourite."  And so on and so forth.  I don't know if I can even pick a favourite because everything is outstanding!!!

 

I will say, however, that your stop to look for sapphires at Philipsburg looks particularly interesting - are you going to get the stones cut properly at some point?

 

And the plant material at Big Cedar Ridge is awesome!!!  The orange colour of the flora against the grey matrix is exquisite.

 

Thanks for sharing this wonderful trip with us - I'm turning 50 in eight years so now I'm thinking that I should perhaps do something similar to mark my half-century... 

[grandpa]

Wow Randy, thanks very much for taking us along with you on such a great adventure.  I'm wondering how many rooms you will have to add to your home to hold and display all of your wonderful treasures from this trip.  Truly a great group of fossils and such a nice distribution of types.

[Nimravis]

Randy great trip report and thanks for taking the time to put it together, I love all of the finds and pictures- thanks again.

[snolly50]

Thanks for sharing your experience. It was a treat to follow along.

[Fossildude19]

Excellent report of an EPIC trip! 

Thanks for taking the time to post this us, Randy!

Congratulations on some amazing finds.  

[RandyB]

5 hours ago, Ludwigia said:

What an epic journey! Thanks very much for sharing your experiences. Great photos! I'd love to ramble through the midwest someday. By the way, I think that the crystals on your Pierre Shale finds are rather Calcite than Selenite.

Very possible @Ludwigia, I have seen them described as selenite, calcite and/or barite. To me they were a pretty bonus to the fossils I was targeting so I am ok with whichever they turn out to be.

[PrehistoricWonders]

Sounds like a great trip! Glad you had fun and found some great fossils!

[JamieLynn]

Thanks for taking us along on your adventure! With being stuck at home and the wanderlust getting worse and worse, at least I got to "armchair" travel with you!  I've been up to the Devils Tower....it is truly a sight. I can only imagine climbing i!  I do have a question...why were you doing a "night dig" ? Is that something specific to that location? Do you use blacklight to help find fossils? Inquiring minds want to know.....

[RandyB]

4 minutes ago, JamieLynn said:

 I do have a question...why were you doing a "night dig" ? Is that something specific to that location? Do you use blacklight to help find fossils? Inquiring minds want to know.....

Night digs in the 18" layer allow you to use soft light sources from a low angle that allow you to see where fossils are preserved in the rock. The fossils, fish or otherwise, aren't completely flat so you can see ripples from the body, especially vertebrae. This allows you to carefully extract complete fossils with matrix intact and wide borders on all sides allowing for the best possible prep.  When hunting other layers of the green river formation, folks typically just split random "smaller" chunks of matrix, hence the name the split fish layers where you often get lopsided partial fossils on both halves of a split.

[deutscheben]

Wonderful fossils and scenery, thanks for taking great pictures and sharing with us.

[jdp]

Looks like a hell of a time. How is the rock on Devil's Tower? I've never climbed there but it's on my list.

[digit]

Truly epic!

 

So far my longest roadtrip has been 2900 miles but your post is giving me ideas.

 

How many days did this trip entail?

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

[RandyB]

56 minutes ago, digit said:

How many days did this trip entail?

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

Hey Ken,

 

Originally we were scheduled for 23 days, but we cut a couple off driving home and got it down to 21.  Last time I did roughly the same distance in 16 days with the addition of my son in the car.  I recommend the additional days if you can do it.  This time I got to spend a day collecting at most locations instead of an hour or two, plus we kept the 2 extra days in reserve in case we had to adjust our plans.  I would love to have made it longer (under non-covid circumstances), but 3 weeks was pushing it with my job.  Good luck to you if you manage to make it work out.  I enjoy roadtrips and don't mind driving long distances for days on end, but its not for everyone.

 

- Randy

[FossilNerd]

Wow! What a great road trip! Thanks for sharing! There are much worse ways to deal with a mid-life crisis.  

[RandyB]

1 hour ago, jdp said:

Looks like a hell of a time. How is the rock on Devil's Tower? I've never climbed there but it's on my list.

Hi @jdp

 

As it was my first climb ever I'm not sure I am qualified to answer.  I am told there are hundreds of possible routes with a wide variety of difficulty.  Its basalt columns once you get above the boulder field and requires a LOT of crack climbing which I found challenging because it didn't equate to anything I am used to doing in normal life.  Trying to wedge a foot or even toes in enough to lever myself up was hard, but I really struggled to get a good finger wedge that I trusted to pull hard on at times.  My guide scampered up like a mountain goat, then spent a lot of time coaching me and encouraging me to keep going.  He told me repeatedly I was paying for the day so take whatever breaks I needed and allowed me to drop back a bit to find a different route when I got stuck. 

 

Surprisingly I never felt like I was going to fall, though I did give him a heads up I was losing my grip at one point where I knew I was going to pull free.  He kept the rope tight until I got my feet back under me in a better position.  The rock felt like rough granite, very grippy but very steep.  Weather conditions were great while we were on the wall. 

 

I found the experience exhilarating, but completely exhausting.  My wife and I did the hiking trail around the tower later in the afternoon and by the time I got back to the lodge I started having some severe cramping in my legs.  I downed 2 bottles of Gatorade, had some food and felt better.  I was sore for 2 more days, but thats because I am a couch potato by nature and my body was in revolt.  Overall it was an experience I will never forget.

 

- Randy

[jpc]

What a great trip.  I love epic outings like this. 

 

I am a bit sad you did not stop by the Tate Museum in Casper.  You were only 40 minutes away at Hell's Half Acre.  I would have shown you around. 

 

[Mark Kmiecik]

Thanks for the virtual trip. I enjoyed it very much. If I went I would start at Big Cedar Ridge and never leave. Love those plants.

[Notidanodon]

Wow that’s more fossil hunts than I’ve been on in my life, in 3 weeks! Sounds like heaven to me, it looks and sounds like the trip of a lifetime and I’m glad it got to go ahead despite the circumstances   Thanks so much for giving the forum such a wonderfully detailed report and hopefully we can see some of the prepped results soon

[Tidgy's Dad]

Randy, thank you so much for sharing this epic adventure and beautiful countryside.

Some marvelous fossils, really something for everyone.