What a day! We have met some of the best folks today and that’s always some of the highlights of the trips.
The first stop of the day was at U Dig Fossils for some fossil digging! I wasn’t sure what to expect, except I knew I wanted to find a triceratops. Turns out that wasn’t the kind of fossils we were hunting for. Instead we were digging for trilobites. Still cool for sure. I was a bit worried it was going to be way too touristy and not authentic. Although, I’m not sure there were a lot of locals there, it was as authentic as can be. We were chipping shale right off the side of the mountain. Literally. I was also worried it would be like our few visits to the McCook Quarry by our house, where they hand you a bag of already excavated fossils and you just get to separate them from pebbles they throw in there too. Again, I was so wrong. So, no dinosaurs, not too gimmicky, and we were thwacking away at the rock ourselves.
When we arrived we were greeted by Cole, the only person running the whole operation. He seemed intrigued by our trip, almost as much as I was by fossil digging. He patiently answered our questions and then led us to the site and modeled the best techniques to find the good stuff. We spent two hours chipping away at huge chunks of shale. Our goal was to split them into thinner layers and search for the fossils. It was just awesome! We found way more than we could carry with us for the next seven weeks, so chose our favorites to bring back home. I’m confident that if the ranger career doesn’t work out for Ellie, she will also make a great archeologist, paleontologist, or fossil digger. If you’re ever in the middle of nowhere Utah, be sure to spend some time fossil digging!
And if you continue on your way through the middle of nowhere to Great Basin National Park, you must stop in Baker, Nevada. We were here two years ago and happened upon the Snake Valley Water Festival and parade. It was the parade that went down the only street through town and then turned around. That way we could see both sides of the float and fire truck. We were also able to eat a couple of meals at Kerouac’s, a phenomenal restarurat with all homemade upscale food. It has been one of those restaurants that’s I’ve drempt about in the two years since. In fact, they recently posted a job for a line chef on facebook and I may have seriously considered applying. I think it came with room and a daily meal. Yeass! Anyway, we finally made our way back to Baker and are staying at The Stargazer, the motel owned by the same people (Jake and Kate) as Kerouac’s. Jake and Laura (I’m assuming the hotel manager) greeted us so warmly and welcomed us back. It was kind of like seeing old friends again.
After a very brief thunderstome went through, we spent the rest of the then sunny afternoon and evening on the quiant patio talking with an awesome family from South Carolina. The girls loved playing with their one year old and we enjoyed the adult conversation. They’re on a similar trip as ours and also travel each summer, so it was really fun to compare favorite local restaurants, hikes, campgrounds, and adventure stories. (Continued safe travels, if you’re reading this.)
I’m anxious for a really good meal and a fancy cocktail, so I’m signing off!
(We’re planning on backpacking tomorrow night, so it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to post anything.)
