Wyoming/Utah Fossil and Rocks with Ed Waley

 Ed Waley and I are together again in the outdoors. Ed and I have a lot of history that dates back to college days at Southwest Texas where we met in Field Biology class. This fossil and rock hunting trip started Saturday afternoon when we arrived in Kemmerer, Wyoming. The first stop was forty-five minutes to the east. The collecting site was recognizable because of the hundreds of  holes that have been dug by collectors in the sage brush covered prairie. This site is referred to as Blue Forest. There is a 2 million year old petrified forest buried under a shallow layer of dirt. It is named Blue Forest because some of the agatized wood has a blue color which is unusual and beautiful. We found a bucket full of petrified wood but only a few pieces that had the blue color. 

This piece of petrified wood actually showed damage from some type of creature. What a story this tree could tell.

Petrified wood with bubbly looking blue chalcedony

                                                     More small blue pieces

Next stop was north of Kemmerer at the fossil fish quarry operated by American Fossil. 

In the early morning, on our long drive out to the quarry, we spotted a covey of Sage Grouse.

Quarry.... You just check in and start splitting rock. They have rock cutting saws to use to trim down the size of your slab.

We found quite a few fossil fish but this was the prize as it is unusual to find more than one fish in any slab and this one has five. These fossil fish are believed to be a part of a mass extinction during the Eocene period (50 million years ago)

These fish are partially covered in limestone but should clean up nicely once I get the slab home. 

Next stop was Sunstone Knoll near Delta, Utah

Found on the surface of the ground - slightly yellow in color and some still having their crystal faceted sides.

Next stop was a trilobite quarry in the Wheeler formation which is west of Delta about 50 miles. The trilobites are from the Cambrian period(500 million years ago). Trilobites were small aquatic bugs that must have been very prevalent in the lake that once existed in this area. With helpful guidance from the caretaker of the quarry, Ed and I got setup in what turned out to be a very fruitful area for digging and splitting rock. By lunch, we had two buckets full of rock containing small trilobites and a half dozen priceless larger specimens. The larger trilobites are much harder to find and also much more impressive in appearance.

There is always a light shining on Ed and now I have a photo that proves it.

Ed holding up a slab containing a trilobite. Notice the breaking bars and hammers. The layer of black rock had to be broken away from the wall with the breaking bars and then the sections had to be split into thin layers with a pick.

Some of our mother lode of trilobites.

Large 1 and 1/2 inch specimen uncovered from it's 500 million year old grave.

Most of land in this part of Utah is BLM. We were in some pretty remote country. About 80 miles of gravel road today and around one bend we were greeted by a small herd of wild mustangs. We had read that there were a few small herds in the area, but didn't think we would have the pleasure of seeing one. Check out that pinto on the ridge.

Next stop is 45 miles south of Delta for obsidian. We were on our way to a known obsidian collecting spot at Black Spring when we started noticing the obsidian along the road. We stopped along a dry creek and immediately started picking up obsidian(black volcanic glass).  In the process, we found two more types of obsidian that are more difficult to find. We found a few pieces of snowflake obsidian and two pieces of mahogany obsidian.

We could have picked up a ton of this size obsidian 

Mahogany obsidian  will be beautiful when polished

Ed took most of the rock and fossils back to Washington in his pickup where I plan to pick it up next summer when Sally and I drive up for a visit. I kept a few to take home on the plane. The big fossil fish slab is fragile and I worried about putting it in my check bag on Southwest Airlines. I learned that their policy is that you can carry on fossils as long as they meet the size criteria for carry on luggage. 

This is what I brought home on the plane to show Sally. It is just a fraction of what I found.