Texoma trip to Ammonite Beach

[Twinlukers]

Well hello everyone!!! Are trip to the Texas Boarded and Ammonite Beach was one of top trips in Texas. The rumors about large ammonites were very true and our research and friends came thru with some locations. 

The biggest part of our trip was the work in getting our finds back to our vehicle. We had such a great time on Friday checking out the area as we promised our selves to just look and no collecting until we knew how far our searching areas is and if we found some to be patient. Well that rule went out the window with my wife as the ammonite fever hit her hard. She was grabbing everything in sight... oh lord I needed some extra strength if I was going to make it thru the weekend....

 

Well I’m use of carrying heavy packs when I go primitive camping. I know my limits and a canoe and pack is about 130-150 lbs but our portage’s are a couple100 feet. But I was tested for sure as as we started hiking to our spots. 

Location #1

Was a location we hit that allowed us to follow a railroad track for the first 1/4 mile and then on our turn we had to climb a couple of deep cliffs. So I told my wife that if we find any big pieces that she would have to make a choice. Picture or she can carry it out. But after she saw what we had to go thru she agreed and kept her mind on smaller fossils. We found some smaller ammonites at our location and we were pretty happy with the scouting. But we did noticed some tracks of other hunters that were pretty fresh. No big ammonites 

i cant remember how to insert the picture and keep telling you all our adventures. So I’ll add more pictures to this feed as the sizes are not edited yet.

[Twinlukers]

This was our total finds for the weekend.. as most of the smaller ammonites came from location #1.

my wife found a couple of nice pieces but remembered the cliff we had to go back up. 

I was good with it but she needed some help. I told her I’ll grab a couple for you because we had no idea what we would find at our second location. 

 

Here is our weekend finds

[Twinlukers]

We closed out our day by checking into our camp site at the Eisenhower State Park. I would highly recommend it. We found a nice site with only one other camper close to use so we could get some good rest for tomorrow,

close to our campsite. Very refreshing as the temps were in the low 90’s

 

 

[Twinlukers]

[Twinlukers]

[Twinlukers]

Look I also found some devils toe nails on the piece of limestone that fell off the cliff. 

this was very refreshing after our second day of carrying our treasures back.

 

[BobWill]

Great report. It looks like you did well. I see some Eopachydiscus and Mortoniceras ammonites in the pile. Love Eisenhower park. The Dallas Paleontological Society camps there when we hunt the lake sometimes. I always thought it would be fun to rent a big fishing barge and spend a few days covering some of the shoreline of Texoma with a bunch of fossil-nerds. I may have to do that some day

[Fruitbat]

Looks like you had a very productive day!  Congratulations! 

 

-Joe

[henpecked]

Thanks for sharing your story and pictures. Looks like you did well.

[Miocene_Mason]

Nice report! Those ammos seem pretty big to me!

[KimTexan]

Sounds like a fun trip. I like hunting the area around the lake and Red River.

 

 

 

@BobWill

Yes, I think DPS needs to have one of those trips. I would be all in. Even if someone had a decent boat and raft or something we could take to put loot on as we checked out the shoreline. I’d like to do the same at Lake Whitney. Some of my first ammonites came from Whitney,

[Twinlukers]

I’ll have more to tell you all later!! Tired and I want to put a YouTube together for you all to see... I like the idea of renting a big boat and taking a group out their.  We were the only ones out their this weekend. It was like our god said enjoy!!!

[Monica]

What a haul of ammonites - wow!!!  Well done - thanks for sharing!

[Twinlukers]

Here are some more pictures of our trip. Yes everyone we had a great time. It lived up to its name that’s for sure. It’s an absolute graveyard for ammonites. At first we couldn’t believe our eyes because we’ve explored a lot of areas of Texas from the Glen Rose Formation to the Austin Chalk and never seen as much as we have this past weekend. 

You really have to work at getting them out and it’s all about patient and using some good tools. 

I knew the hike back would be a tough one but I try to stay in shape. 

[Twinlukers]

[Twinlukers]

If anyone has a better way of peeping them I would appreciate it as I’m pretty good at chipping away but I would love to bring some color back. None of the once we found had any shell left as far as I could see but we love the details and impressions within the ammonite it self.

 

[Twinlukers]

[goatinformationist]

Yeah you rascal.  Where are the "smaller ones"?  All I see are large and larger sizes.  Maybe it's my age.

[Darktooth]

Great report and pics!

[DPS Ammonite]

13 hours ago, Twinlukers said:

I am a little confused. Are you trying to add or take away color on the ammonite? Short of adding a dye, wax or other coating you can't bring some color back short of letting it sit outside and deteriorate. Consider evening out the color, (lightening most of the ammonite) by soaking it in bleach and/or hydrogen peroxide.

[Twinlukers]

Well my goal is to make a metal stand and drill two holes to support one big ammonite for our own display. So my thinking is I wanted to make the ammonite a little darker and give it a glaze or an epoxy finish to preserve it. What do you think? I feel if I bleach it it will make it to light.

i know I can oxide it like concrete stain and that will bring back some of the color.

ill try it on one of our half pieces that are going to the garden. 

[Twinlukers]

1 hour ago, goatinformationist said:

Yeah you rascal.  Where are the "smaller ones"?  All I see are large and larger sizes.  Maybe it's my age.

All we could find was a couple of smaller ones in the 3”-4” range. I’m working on one for a close friend who we are going to give them as they are leaving Texas for Utah. I’ll post it tomorrow when I have it cleaned up more.

[Twinlukers]

This was one of our smaller ones!!! I’ll have our YouTube video done tomorrow I hope.. just getting my editing program back and installed.

computer issues

[JustPlainPetrified]

As far as I know, there's no way to bring back any color once it's gone. Anything other than a satin or gloss finish would just be changing what you found. I have used Thompson weather sealant on my ammonites and sometime this will darken the suture lines. Maybe that's what you should try.?? Very envious of such a huge find. Congrats.

Edited June 20, 2018 by JustPlainPetrified
Adding photo

[Twinlukers]

On 6/18/2018 at 8:40 AM, Twinlukers said:

Here are some more pictures of our trip. Yes everyone we had a great time. It lived up to its name that’s for sure. It’s an absolute graveyard for ammonites. At first we couldn’t believe our eyes because we’ve explored a lot of areas of Texas from the Glen Rose Formation to the Austin Chalk and never seen as much as we have this past weekend. 

You really have to work at getting them out and it’s all about patient and using some good tools. 

I knew the hike back would be a tough one but I try to stay in shape. 

 

The top one my baby was trying to extract but broke her hammer and when I went to look for her all I found was her pack and food bag!! She was hiding in a small crevice and she couldn’t hear me calling her.  But then she pops her head up and I found her. It was a tense moment as I thought something happened. She gets so caught up in the moments and just leaves me behind. Lol. But we had to leave that one because it was really embedded in the shelf it was on. Next time!!!!! It ours!!! Right baby??