High Desert Fossil Run 2019

[LabRatKing]

Well, I'm headed up and ready to go. Been planning this trip for five months!

obviously nothing to report yet, but I'm hoping a little pre-game Q and A with you guys might help me raise the safety factor. I'm traveling solo and I have never been to Millard county.

No worries though, as desert camping and travel goes, this is an easy one for me. Three weeks in the Atacama on foot was far riskier! Death Valley, the Mojave, and Baja aren't too tough.

Anyway:

I've been scouting the works of Smith, Wilson, and about twenty other geologists and paleontologists to try my hand at places like Cowboy Pass, Camp Canyon, the red coral of the Foote range and Marjum pass in addition to the "tourist" sites like Fossil mountain in The Barn, reliable U-Dig, Fossil Butte and the fish quarries and my childhood dream, Dinosaur National Monument. ( I blame you all for everything but UDig and Dinosaur....first heard of those other spots on here or on members sites)

Right now, I'm worried about road conditions in Millard county. Very hard to find recent reports and it looks like the weather was wet and floody. I plan to BLM camp for the entire trip of only for the quiet and some armchair astronomy.

I don't use GPS or Internet maps, just topos, a recent road atlas, and my trusty Brunton transit.

 

Any safety/weather/driving tips I should know before I get there?

[Ludwigia]

Have fun and weather the weather

[ynot]

Carry lots of water.

Good luck out there.

[JustPlainPetrified]

7 minutes ago, ynot said:

Carry lots of water.

Good luck out there.

Yup lots of water.

[RJB]

  3 weeks on foot in the Atacama!  You should be absolutely fearless now!   We are having a very wet late spring early summer but most of those roads should be ok?  Most are graveled.  If the road looks bad and your going downhill, I would turn around and go find nother site to dig at.  A lot harder to make it back up a hill than downhill.   Imm sure your already smart enough to be bringing shovel, food, water and a first aid kit.  Just have fun and good luck

 

RB

[LabRatKing]

Thanks gang! I made it back yesterday. I've been sorting and photographing finds. As a teaser, I had great success at Cowboy pass, got specimens from every layer at Fossil mountain, and had an excellent overall adventure. (I visited over a dozen sites, but some I didn't do any collecting at...)

 

I'll post up the results in a fresh post soon.