Post by herchenx on Aug 18, 2012 21:43:46 GMT -5
After Mel asked about some agatized goniobasis in another thread:
forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/index.cgi?board=trtphoto&action=display&thread=54376
I did a little checking and found that I could make it to some known Turritella sites in about 3.5 hours.
We left last night and headed north into Wyoming and west on I-80.
The sunset was intense. My cell camera didn't capture it well, but this was a nice view of Elk Mountain:
We ended up getting into Wamsutter, WY around 9, but it got dark and then we were trying to follow directions in the dark. We ended up following directions from a friend of mine with a little help from my gps to a place called Delaney Point. I could see from the lights in town that we were a good bit higher in elevation. There was only rocky ground so I pitched the tent on gravel and put the 3 kids who came with me to bed by 11.
We woke up to this:
Here is the view:
After getting around we drove a few miles south from the point to an area a friend had marked as having lots of shells that were decayed out of the rock:
Some of the shells had decayed off the agate inside them:
The kids got right to work:
I filled 3 5-gallon buckets with loose shells and dirt. If you ever make the trip out here it would be good to bring classifier screens to more easily separate the shells from the loose dirt.
I will be sifting it as I get time, hopefully a lot of it is shells. I hadn't realized how small they all would be. Picking them up individually, or even by the handful, was not an option.
We moved around a bit and went back to the north where we camped, and where the rim bends sharply to the west. We followed the north edge of the rim for ~3 miles from the point and there was a place where the electric fence that runs the entire length of the north edge of the rim actually came up to the edge of the rim. We stopped and there was a bunch of stromatolite and I think massive feldspar. The stromatolite appeared to have opal in it! I'll know better once I can clean it up and slab some.
We stopped for lunch on "big hill" and Corben found another horned toad:
In spite of having to stay behind the fence the view was stunning, all day
We left about 1pm and got home about 5.
Coming down off the rim:
Some of the scenery as we get closer to home:
Here is just one of the dozen or more big chunks of stromatolite:
Some of the Turritella:
The haul (buckets are full of dirt and loose goniobasis shells):
Had a great day, everyone is exhausted!
forum.rocktumblinghobby.com/index.cgi?board=trtphoto&action=display&thread=54376
I did a little checking and found that I could make it to some known Turritella sites in about 3.5 hours.
We left last night and headed north into Wyoming and west on I-80.
The sunset was intense. My cell camera didn't capture it well, but this was a nice view of Elk Mountain:
We ended up getting into Wamsutter, WY around 9, but it got dark and then we were trying to follow directions in the dark. We ended up following directions from a friend of mine with a little help from my gps to a place called Delaney Point. I could see from the lights in town that we were a good bit higher in elevation. There was only rocky ground so I pitched the tent on gravel and put the 3 kids who came with me to bed by 11.
We woke up to this:
Here is the view:
After getting around we drove a few miles south from the point to an area a friend had marked as having lots of shells that were decayed out of the rock:
Some of the shells had decayed off the agate inside them:
The kids got right to work:
I filled 3 5-gallon buckets with loose shells and dirt. If you ever make the trip out here it would be good to bring classifier screens to more easily separate the shells from the loose dirt.
I will be sifting it as I get time, hopefully a lot of it is shells. I hadn't realized how small they all would be. Picking them up individually, or even by the handful, was not an option.
We moved around a bit and went back to the north where we camped, and where the rim bends sharply to the west. We followed the north edge of the rim for ~3 miles from the point and there was a place where the electric fence that runs the entire length of the north edge of the rim actually came up to the edge of the rim. We stopped and there was a bunch of stromatolite and I think massive feldspar. The stromatolite appeared to have opal in it! I'll know better once I can clean it up and slab some.
We stopped for lunch on "big hill" and Corben found another horned toad:
In spite of having to stay behind the fence the view was stunning, all day
We left about 1pm and got home about 5.
Coming down off the rim:
Some of the scenery as we get closer to home:
Here is just one of the dozen or more big chunks of stromatolite:
Some of the Turritella:
The haul (buckets are full of dirt and loose goniobasis shells):
Had a great day, everyone is exhausted!