Day Three continued: More Fossil Hunting: Prehistoric Fish

Day three: More driving in Utah ... some signs of poor economic times along the way, we found this fixer-upper... After hours of being on the road sometimes you just have to stop for a rest and a treat: Take your pick of all these flavors!

I had a decadent chocolate cone! Oh it tasted sooooooooooooo gooooooooooooood!

The ice cream shop was in this old restored barn.

Sometimes when you are out of your normal environs you come across the weirdest things

(to us anyway!)

Unfortunately we missed the festival! (or not) When we come to Kemmerer we are always greeted by this couple!

They are the quietest pair! A little stiff but what can you expect from carved wood?

We stopped at the "Westerner Cafe" for lunch...the year on this old poster

was significant for me.

Can you guess why?

Even Little Kemmerer had art on it's buildings outdoors.

This is the road to the second fossil quarry in as many days...

We met these little guys on the road...a little belated here for Animal Wednesday!

And then we started digging...actually what we did was split limestone or was it shale

to try and find fish that were over 250 MILLION YEARS OLD!!!

Those are some of the many DH found!

And I found these!!!! I was so surprised to have the rock fall away and inside

lo and behold

FISH!

Yep, those are MINE!

It was hard work. It wasn't hot out, which was nice, just pleasant.

But sitting on the ground was not the most comfortable.

You have to split a lot of rocks before you find a fish.

But you can find a lot of fish poop!

And we did!

I also found equally old sea weed and it left a green impression on the rock

and was very pretty. We brought it all home.

Some of these guys come daily and have huge stores of sheets of rock full of fossils.

It was interesting talking to them and seeing their finds.

I've already taken you up to day four in my art journal.

Tomorrow I will take you on to Day 5 and more Grand Teton activities and sightings. I am enjoying this all over again.

I hope you are too.

Day One and Two 2011 Road Trip Nv/UTAH

We saw five rainbows after a short cloud burst of rain traveling across the Salt Flats of Utah...ONE TWO

Three

FOUR

trust me there was a fifth....and then these most specular huge skies and clouds...

My faithful driver of hundreds of miles a day, historian, travel guide, who made it all come alive.

In Utah we spent two days hunting for fossils. The first day seen here was our search and DH's success at finding Trilobites, these bug like creatures that have been hiding in rocks for millions of years!

Any of these rocks can be the home of the trilobites!

Whole families joined in the search!

For a fee we were given hammers and goggles for eye protection.

We brought our own gloves and water.

DH hammered away for two long hours.

(I did it for one hour)

And he was told that this find of his was the biggest they'd seen in a month!

On the road again, to our motel, only to get up early the next morning to head out to the next fossil quarry.

Stay tuned to see what I found!!!

I love the big skies and clouds in these wide open plains.

Art Journal Days 3 and 4 on Our Road Trip Preceeded by Photos that Inspired the Journal Keeping

I think this is my third trip to the Grand Tetons outside Jackson Hole, Wyoming! If you cannot hear us saying "OhMiGod" while looking at the photos (and I suggest you increase your page size to 150%) you need to get your hearing checked!

Yellow Arrow Root

Rapids

Our first evening. During our three days there we saw the Grands in fog, covered in low clouds, in rain and in

bright sunshine! They are amazing!

Our first Marmot spotting!

We took a motorized boat across the lake to hike on the other side.

Boys will be boys!

And then we saw a Grizzly Bear!!!!

The weather was wonderful while we were there.

Light rain showers happened occasionally; the temps were in the high sixties to mid seventies;

perfect summer weather in my book!

And here you see me continuing my art journal. On my birthday, which I posted yesterday, my grandkids poured over the art journal

asking me to read it to them start to finished. They were mesmerized! Stay tuned. More to come.