Utah 2016

[trilobite tim]

Utah Trip Report

I spend a good portion of October collecting trilobites in Utah.  My first stop was in the Wasatach-Cache National Forest.  I drove into Hardware Ranch (Rt 101).  Just before the Ranch boundary I checked and found a few bits in the rocks.  Driving back west I went up the left fork of the Blacksmith River.  Again bits and pieces, but not much to talk about.  So, after a night at a good campsite I drove out to the western ranges.

 

First stop was the Drums.  The road is rough but doable.  I collected for the day, bagging up about 15 from the lower Wheeler.  Every time I camp here the wind comes up hard during the night.  Third time this has happen to me in the Drums.  I pulled out in the middle of the night, headed for Swazey Springs, but I had a hard time navigating in the dark and pulled off the road to sleep in the car.  After watching a beautiful sunrise I drove on to the first good road junction.  I was right about where I thought I was, but stopping was the right decision.  This is not an area to get lost in.  By late morning I was up on the slopes above the spring (good water here).  I collected about 20 bugs, mostly Peronopsis and Ptychagnostus, but a half dozen nonagnostid small bugs, about 1 inch.  I hope one or two might be Jenkinsonia varga, but it is more likely they are Bolaspidella.  They have a hard layer of wheeler shale over them like a shield, so it is hard to be sure till I get them cleaned. Of course I got a few Eltharia and one Gogia!

 

The night was windy again so I headed over to Amasa or North Canyon, and the Weeks formation.  There is a good, well protected, camp site there above the quarries.  I camped here nine nights, using the area as a base camp.  Water was available about a mile below U-Dig, just to the left (or west) of the main road.  I spend a few days walking the hills of the Weeks formation.  I collected about 10 bugs in the cream beds and about 20 in the red!  Best I have ever done in the red beds.  The quarries are pretty worked over, I walked up the hills and found several spots to break rock.  I went to the Wheeler Amphitheater, coming in from the west edge, till I was just north of the old airstrip.  Mostly I collected Peronopsis interstricta here.  Then I drove over the what I call the Big Trench.  This was dug about 10 years ago and the shale is breaking down pretty bad.  I collected several Ptychagnostus atavius.  In the past I have collected several good Bolaspidella here.  I believe this is lower wheeler, in fact I think the trenches go right down to the Swazey limestone.  (Does anyone know why this area was dug?  Or the proper name?) I did a little work in the Marjum, and visited the Red Beds.  I walked up to the Chisholm, but didn't find too much.  I hiked up below Notch Peak, by Painter Spring, but the intrusions cooked the limestone too much, didn't find any fossils, but there are some interesting minerals!  And the narrow little canyon was a beautiful hike.

 

On the way south I stopped in the Wah Wah Range, collecting in the Filmore.  I have not finished cleaning these yet, they are still in the vinegar bath, but I don't expect much
 except bits and pieces.

 

I will post pictures of trilobites when I have a good selection cleaned up.  Is there any interest in seeing pictures of what I collected before cleaning?

[Fossildude19]

Absolutely interested in viewing the finds before prep.

Sounds like you did pretty well.  

Great report. 

Thanks for posting it. 

Regards,

[DeepTimeIsotopes]

It'd be a great idea to post your fossils pre-cleaning so we can see before and after cleaning. 

[Wrangellian]

Pre-cleaning pics would show us what to expect to be looking at if we every get the chance to collect the same spots.

[ynot]

Thanks for sharing!

Sounds like a lot of fun! (and "bugs").

Love to see the pre cleaning pictures as well as the post cleaning ones.

Tony