Uncle Siphuncle Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Much has been already said about Florissant, so I’ll be concise with my words. 34 MYA, lake environment, ash fall, pay dig. Controlled hunt: they dig and dump piles, you select chunks and split them at picnic tables. Not the death defying adventure I crave, but fun to do once, fill a Riker with common finds, and say I’ve been there. You can buy the same rock and have it shipped to you, but since we were in the area, I prefer the on-site experience and selecting my own rock from the piles. Hint: Skip the blocky and/or grainy stuff and target the thinly laminated, shaly stuff that is beginning to split on its own. If you see black organic matter, even better. Exploit those planes. A montage of pics follows. 7 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted September 17, 2018 Author Share Posted September 17, 2018 First split 6 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted September 17, 2018 Author Share Posted September 17, 2018 Now leaves 6 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted September 17, 2018 Author Share Posted September 17, 2018 More leaves 5 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted September 17, 2018 Author Share Posted September 17, 2018 Still more 3 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted September 17, 2018 Author Share Posted September 17, 2018 OK now I’ll “leave” you with this. 5 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minnbuckeye Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Beautiful finds! I too made a pitstop there and enjoyed splitting the rocks provided. Your advice to TFF is very sound! My goal was to find an insect. You were more successful than I! Otherwise, your pictures could totally be used to represent what I had found, including the hash plate. I must say the lady present to assist you was very informative/ helpful. An A+ in my book. She even offered to specially let me in at 6 am on my next trip to Colorado so I can be on the road quicker. My wife wants to go back to Gateway, a beautiful resort off the beaten path but 6 hours from Florissant. That is why I needed to gain access to the quarry earlier than they typically open.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walt Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Wow! Those plants look like they dried in the mud yesterday! Very nice. Thank you. Everything is generated through your own will power ~ Ray Bradbury Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted September 17, 2018 Author Share Posted September 17, 2018 My only bug was my first split. Beginner’s luck! I’ll be in the area later in the year, but since the rock is damp when dug, it will soon stay frozen and hard to work in the coming months, so I negotiated spousal concessions to make this happen at 80F on a blue bird day. 1 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimravis Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Great finds and trip report, I need to stop out there sometime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted September 17, 2018 Author Share Posted September 17, 2018 Next piece of advice. Keep a pair of end nippers handy when hunting thinly laminated shales and limestones. You’ll have a much higher salvage rate with field trimming for the plane ride whether you are hunting Florissant, Kemmerer, U-Dig, Holzmaden or Solnhofen. Nipping results in much more controllable reduction than impact. 7 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xiphactinus Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Note! They are cutting their hours way back due to the end of the season. My wife and I drove almost 2 hours each way last week to go there only to find the gate locked and no one there. I advise getting the phone number off the website and calling before you go. Save yourself some gas and disappointment. We've been there before and found lots of great leaves and insects. Highly recommended. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minnbuckeye Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 The shale is thin enough that one can use wire cutters like scissors to manicure your find. Also, Uncle Siphuncle mentioned wet rock. Pick a time that the exposed rock has had time to dry. You will have your best luck in these piles. I spent the first half of my time in recently harvested wet rock, thinking I was the first to look at it. It is much harder to expose the tidbits it holds. I learned this lesson from a little boy that out produced me 3 to 1. He worked the old dry rocks that no one wanted to split! I do learn from my mistakes and took in his advice after he proudly showed me his finds. And no, I did not butt into his pile of rocks. I found my own dried out rocks!! There is plenty to go around. Also,it is a GREAT place for children to experience. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tidgy's Dad Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Love the insect! Leaves are great too! Very interesting and informative thread, thanks everybody! 1 Life's Good! Tortoise Friend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Nice finds. Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minnbuckeye Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 Went into my camera and retrieved these ID sheets the lady at the quarry wanted me to have. Hopefully this will help those that visit Florissant. @Uncle Siphuncle 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minnbuckeye Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minnbuckeye Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minnbuckeye Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minnbuckeye Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minnbuckeye Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 FINALLY DONE!!!! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyc Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 @Uncle Siphunclecan you share the name of this site please? I will be in CO Springs soon and might want to bust some rocks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted September 18, 2018 Author Share Posted September 18, 2018 56 minutes ago, garyc said: @Uncle Siphunclecan you share the name of this site please? I will be in CO Springs soon and might want to bust some rocks No problem, sir. http://florissantfossils.tripod.com/ Probably best to call and ascertain end of dig season before you go. Outside of that, CO seems to be a rather restrictive state to collect, compared to Texas, Florida, and many other states. 1 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uncle Siphuncle Posted September 18, 2018 Author Share Posted September 18, 2018 1 hour ago, minnbuckeye said: FINALLY DONE!!!! Thank you! 1 Grüße, Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas "To the motivated go the spoils." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doushantuo Posted September 18, 2018 Share Posted September 18, 2018 Some nice journalism here. Some of you may find this useful (from Bouchal et al,American .J.of Botany/2014*: * Which also contains a useful list of all vegetative taxa present, BTW, and an extremely useful discussion of the paleoenvironmental parameters of the site. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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