With the weather continuing to perk up we checked out a FWS vehicle and took Alex on a tour of some of the private sections of the refuge.
Up first was a look out over Palo Duro Canyon.
We’ve featured this locale in previous posts so we’ll only throw one photo at you this time.
Then we headed down toward Cibola Springs to enjoy the beauty and solitude and partake in a little fossil hunting.
The waterfall was just beginning to defrost.
The sun was shining but things were still pretty icy in the shadows.
Super cool Ice Stalagmite (a.k.a. Ice Spike)!
Tiny Bubbles.... under the ice.
As the ice layer that was covering the ground melted, it left some neat patterns.
And, here is where the nerd in us may lose a few of you. Don’t wander away for long though because our next post will surely hold a more universal bit of excitement!
Meanwhile... FOSSILS!
Trilobite Fragment or Ancient NIKE Ad?
O.K. So we managed to name that first one because we found an identified picture just like it on the web. Admittedly, we really couldn’t name too many of the fossils that we saw. We were often looking at a mass of fragments.
Which to the untrained eye simply looks like textured rock.
But we knew that we were looking at the remains of long dead and well preserved
ocean based plants and animals. At least that’s the story we’re going with!
Most likely coral or sponge of some kind.
Tentacle, Spine, Leg, Antennae?
Bryozoan of some kind? Fossils are tough to ID!
Distinct tubular shape but don’t know what it is.
Those spiral things are Cephalopods.
If we had something witty to say we’d put it here.
On the left, shell of some kind. Don’t know what is to the right.
Didn’t start finding all of these spirals until we were getting ready to leave.
Chunk of coral? Sure looked like it.
Oh, and mixed in with everything else, we saw a few faces. Can you find them?
While Alex and Nicole were occupying themselves with long dead things, Darlene was flirting with the live ones. She caught a picture of one who was flirting back.
Sage Thrasher
Well, we’d better get to posting this and starting the next one. We’re going for a blog a day until we leave to ensure that we get caught up. Six days and counting until we are...
On The Road Again!