7 States in 10 Days, over 4700 miles

[Allosaurus]

This by far has been the most ambitious trip that I've done, but it was certainly worth the long drive times, poor truck stops (to sleep at), and lack of time to sleep and even eat. In just 10 days I traveled through 7 states (WY, ID, MT, CO, UT, AZ, NM) and covered at least 4700 miles (I might actually have broken 5000). Not only did I alot some time for general fossiling/rockhounding, but also time to stop at a few of the more "touristy" types of places (national parks/monuments, etc). 

 

 

The first day I visited a couple sites in southeastern Montana, with the first being known to produce oysters. It took longer than expected to find, but afterwards I discovered the site to be completely loaded with oysters and oyster fragments. The majority were completely covered with just a tiny bit showing, but after finding a few it seemed like all of them kept popping up one after another. Most were under 1cm in total length, but I found a couple that were larger. The next site was a little disappointing in that due to poor road conditions, I couldn't make it out to a few of the stops that were rumored to yield crinoid pieces (given that I've been working on crinoids for the past year at university, this was going to be one of the highlights of my trip for rockhounding). But I did manage to find one of the stops, which while it appears mostly picked over, did produce one nice piece of coral and several pieces with fragmented clams. This was actually a place that encompassed much more land than I anticipated, so I hope to return next year and alot several days there. 

[Allosaurus]

On the way to Wyoming, I passed through the Bighorn National Forest at over 9000 ft in elevation where snow is still very much present. Along the road I saw over 15 elk, around 20 deer, and an astonishing 24 moose (the moose were all within 15 minutes of each other right by the road). And I also passed through several geologic formations, which were quite interesting to look at (despite the lack of light as the sun continued to go down).

[Allosaurus]

After finally reaching Wyoming, I made it to the Tate Geological Museum in Casper, WY for their annual conference. The first day was spent near Douglas, WY collecting in the White River Formation. There were several very nice skulls found by others, and I found the lower jaws of a Paleolagus and some vertebrae that look like they are from a snake. I did find some other fossils as well including numerous bone fragments, small vertebrae and toe bones, a partial camel scapula, and quite a few jaw/teeth pieces. 

[Allosaurus]

The second day at the Tate was full of excellent speakers covering a broad range of topics on various technologies used to study fossils (eg, photogrammetry, laser florescence, and many more). There was also time to wander around the Tate Museum and see their Tyrannosaur skeleton (Lee Rex) that was just recently moved to a new building. For anyone who hasn't visited the Tate yet, I highly recommend stopping by. 

[Allosaurus]

The next day was also with the Tate, and we visited the historic Como Bluff site (not a collecting stop, but it was a great opportunity to see one of the most famous fossil places of the world), Fossil Cabin, and an ammonite collecting site in the Frontier Formation. The Fossil Cabin (for those who haven't visited) was made out of over 1000 dinosaur bones. 

 

At the ammonite site, someone found part of a fish (in the Mowrey Shale), and while they weren't able to keep it because this was on BLM ground, I believe the fossil went to the Tate Museum for further study. 

 

[Allosaurus]

After the conference, I went to Farson for some petrified wood collecting and found some very beautiful pieces (the pictures really don't do them justice as they are mostly still dirt covered, but I'm hoping to add a couple in the next few days as I clean off some of these branches). Most were fairly small, though the largest branch I found was of decent size at about 10 in or so in length. While at Farson, you should also stop by the local store (I think it's a mercantile) that offers "World Famous Ice Cream" because after a hot day of digging in the dirt, everyone needs some ice cream.

 

For anyone who is thinking about visiting Farson, please always remember to refill your holes after you are done. I saw countless holes dug quite deep that hadn't been filled. When people don't refill their holes it gives all rockhounders/fossilers a bad rep and just gives more reason for sites to be closed to collecting. 

[Wrangellian]

Great report so far...

I like that there are road signs telling you the formation/age of the rock! I recall going across BC/Alberta and wondering what age all those rock outcrops were. No signs to tell you.

I like that coral toward the top.... any idea what age that stuff is?

btw Not sure you realize some of your photos are small, Can you replace them with larger versions?

[Allosaurus]

Next stop was over to Dinosaur National Monument in Utah where the famous quarry that holds over 1500 bones is located. If you like dinosaurs, then this is the place for you. 

 

Uh oh, it looks like I may have hit the max size limit on photos for this thread. I may have to upload the rest to an outside website and provide the links there. I'm heading to bed now, so will finish this in the morning.

 

Wrangellian, unfortunately I don't know the age just yet for the site where the coral came from. I haven't yet had the time to cross reference my GPS coordinates to a geologic map, though I certainly plan to in the next few days. The source I used mentioned the type of coral, though I can't remember specifically what it was. I'll check tomorrow and let you know. Given the file size restrictions, I can't replace the pictures here with their original counterparts, but when I upload the pics to an outside source I can certainly include them as well. The road signs along the way were pretty handy. I don't often see them, but they seem more common in Wyoming. There's a string of them along the road to Thermopolis, and quite a few along highway 191 towards Vernal, UT. I suspect there are perhaps even more along the "Dinosaur Diamound" route in Utah/Colorado, though I only drove on a small portion of it.

[Coco]

Hi,

 

Did you meet JPC to the Tate Museum ? He is an eminent member of TFF !

 

Coco

[caterpillar]

Nice report. Thanks for sharing. I remember some very nice moments with JPC few monthes ago. I've seen him near Lee Rex

[Yvie]

Thanks for this very informative and exhausting.lol

[RJB]

Looks like you had a wonderful trip.  Road trip are always exciting.  Looks like the back of JP's head in that one photo?   Great photos.

 

RB

[Coco]

2 hours ago, RJB said:

Looks like the back of JP's head in that one photo?   Great photos.

 

RB

Oh, you can be right ! On the right side with a white shirt ?

 

@jpc was it you ?

 

Coco

[Allosaurus]

I initially met JP a couple years ago at the conference when I went for my first time, but yes I did talk to JP a bit at this year's conference as well. Wrangellian, the coral is Astrocoenia. 

 

Alright, so I think I finally got the last few pictures uploaded to cover the highlights of this year's trip. 

 

Dinosaur National Monument. It's certainly a place to visit if you like dinosaurs as there are over 1500 bones in the quarry wall. Many of them include camarasaurus and stegosaurus and are marked by an electronic display. There are other displays that are not dinosaur as well, including a couple smaller ones on plants and reptiles. 

http://imgur.com/a/oMtns

 

Vernal, UT Field House Museum. Vernal is where I think most people stay overnight when visiting Dinosaur National Monument as it has the largest selection of motels and restaurants, the majority of which have capitalized on the fame of the nearby quarry. Thus as you drive through you will see almost every business either with the word dinosaur as part of their name or with some sort of dinosaur statue sitting outside. As you drive in, you are greeted by a very cheesy (though funny looking) pink dinosaur welcoming you to Vernal. They also have a field house museum as well, which has some nice displays of fossils as well as an outdoor area with larger prehistoric animal statues. 

http://imgur.com/a/pHxS1

 

Dinosaur, CO. Okay, this was definitely a touristy stop, but when visiting the national monument, this town is only 20 min or so away. This is the access point for the other visitor's center, though I unfortunately ran out of time to explore it. As you drive through, you'll notice several street signs with various dinosaur names and it was interesting to drive around and find them all (I didn't include all of them in this album though). There are a couple dinosaur statues throughout as well that I think most get a little laugh from as they are a bit...outdated. If you stop by the visitor center you'll see a footprint that apparently came out of a local coal mine.

http://imgur.com/a/eiB6L

 

Carlsbad Caverns. I don't really like picking favorites because I enjoyed the entire trip, but this might be the place I most enjoyed stopping by at. I spent a whole day here, but really you need 4 days or so to go on each cave tour (most are only offered at certain times throughout the week). It had been years since I last went into any cave, and Carlsbad really does not disappoint. Whether you go through the Big Room or King's Palace, there are beautiful cave formations throughout to look at. Apparently it was a reef, and as such you might see a few fossils on some tours (the Left Hand Tunnel's guide will point out a couple to you). Behind the elevators is a beautifully preserved trilobite, though it is quite small and you will probably have to ask a ranger to point it out to you. I stayed to watch the bat flight in the evening, which was well worth the wait. Photos/video aren't allowed as electronics interfere with the bats' flight, but just seeing it in person is more than enough. I don't know precisely how many bats came out that evening, though I think thousands is probably a fair guess. One of the rangers present said their record was over a million.

http://imgur.com/a/XlqWx

 

New Mexico Rockhounding. On my way to the Petrified Forest, I stopped at several sites in New Mexico, most of which were supposed to yield fossils, though in most cases I got skunked. But I did find some very nice carnelian crystals, quartz crystals, and selenite. My last stop was near Jemez Springs and that is certainly a place that everyone should visit if they have time. I only got to spend about 20 min there as it took me almost 2 hours to find the site and the sun was quickly going down, but in that time I found 3 nicely preserved brachiopods, a crinoid stem (YEAH!), and other bits and pieces of fossils (those pictures will be put in this album shortly). Along the road is also Soda Dam, which you should stop by if you are going to Jemez Springs. For those familiar with the area, can anyone enlighten me to the stratigraphy of the area? What formations are the red rock and the gray shale? Is the shale the Osha Canyon Formation?

http://imgur.com/a/86xzx

 

Petrified Forest. I had actually only planned to spend around 2 hours here so that I could potentially make it to Arches, but I lost track of time and ended up spending 8 hours instead, which made my drive home very long as that resulted in 16 hours of driving for one day. You could easily get through the loop road in 2 hours if you only plan to stop by just a couple of the pullouts, but if you want to hike some of the trails or stop at every pullout available (like me), you'll spend a lot more time there. As the name implies, this national park is loaded with massive petrified logs of beautiful blacks, oranges, reds, yellows, and blues. There is of course no collecting allowed, but for anyone needing a petrified wood souvenir, one of the gift shops offers wood from just outside the park's boundaries. If you like seeing petrified wood, then this is the place for you. They have also found some fossilized bones from the park as well, and have a small little museum set up to display a few of them. To my disappointment however there was no room in that museum showcasing the different types of petrified wood found and instead only had a couple polished logs present. And for those of you who enjoy archaeology, there are several petroglyph stops in the park as well.

http://imgur.com/a/Ijaxp

 

Well, that's mostly it. I ultimately took over 1500 pictures, so selecting only a handful of the more interesting ones was a bit difficult. 

 

[JohnBrewer]

Well that was some ride, that would have killed me but I think interstate roads are pretty good over there. You tour must be a record, a fantastic achievement. Looking forward to seeing the finds when you get to go through them properly. 

[Wrangellian]

Try replacing those small pics again... sometimes all you have to do is refresh your browser, apparently, and it will let you. You should  be able to fit almost 4MB of pics in one post.

Also don't forget to delete the unwanted ones from the 'hopper'. Without doing this, the total of old + new pics might put it over the top.