June 12th and 13th, 2017

We spent the night in a Holiday Inn in Pocatello after finding opals in Spencer. It was a great hotel stop. Monday morning we headed for the local Subaru dealer to get a filter cover put back on the car. They were the best. They washed the car, replaced the cover, replaced the moon roof wind deflector (which I had previously cracked when trying to stand up through the moon roof to take a picture) without charging a dime – we did try to pay but they wouldn’t have any part of that. When Leighton left his keys there, they overnighted them to us for free.  Afterwards we traveled on to Kemmerer to find fossil fish.

The weather has not cooperated as it has been cold and wet. Perry got to Kemmerer before us and hunted at another site. He about froze to death. None of us wanted to return to that site. Perry found out after that he could only take 10 pieces of his find.  Today it rained in the morning and was just cold and windy this afternoon. Thanks to the wonderful response and assistance from Patrick at American Fossil we decided to brave it in the afternoon. Leighton and Perry braved the weather and worked the wall. I was treated like the Queen Mother. Patrick opened the doors of their container office, turned on the heat to keep me warm, and delivered slabs to me to hunt through. Not only did he keep me warm we shared great conversation. Patrick is a biologist, an educator and a truly kind beautiful person. We were ecstatic with our fish finds. This is the only site where you can keep what you find up to 100,000 dollars. Leighton and Perry were both happy with their catch. My first find was fish poop. I will show it to you when I get home. It is my treasure now. Leighton found many fish including a big fish and piece of wood which is rare to find. Patrick picked us up at the top of the hill because the roads were a bit muddy. Toward the end of the day he took me to get the car. It was a blast. I had no idea how much fun it could be to drive on mud. The car is a mess but I had a great time. Thanks to Patrick we had a fantastic day despite the weather and wind.

We had no pictures from the Subaru dealer and the rest of the day was just driving so these are from the 13th.

The first stop this morning was at the Fossil Butte Nation Monument visitor center to see what sort of things we could find.  Needless to say our expectations were high after seeing the marvelous specimens at the center.

From outside the visitor center we could see fossil butte.

We took the 5.5 mile loop around the site and were pleased to see several blooming flowers like this blue one.  As you can see on the pedals, it was raining.

Not much wildlife around that rainy morning but this fellow graced us with his presence.

Pink flowers.

Purple flowers.

As we proceeded higher, it was no longer just rain, ice and snow were present.

By early afternoon the rain had stopped but the wind was still going strong so we bundled up and went to American Fossils to hunt for fish in the rock face shown below.

Patrick and Donna had a grand time swapping histories and stories while sort of hunting through the rock slabs that were brought to Donna.  I believe if Patrick needed some parents we would be working through the adoption by now.

The new friends.

Patrick was a huge help to all of us.  Here he is packing one of the fish fossils in preparation for the trip home.

Patrick was not alone in the help we received. Terry showed us how to split the rock, save specimens we were about to destroy, bring rock to the office for Donna to “work” through, and saw specimens into manageable sizes.  I think he is a real expert in his field with 11 years experience.

Below is from left to right, Terry, Donna, Patrick, and Perry.  I of course was manning the camera.

Since there wasn’t much wildlife at the dig site we did see some cows on the way out and decided we needed this calf to include in the days blog.

Finally the view from the dig site was just beautiful, so enjoy.