Paleo-trippin'

So I took a few students to tag along on SSU's semi-annual PaleoPalooza field trip (combined with other schools as well). Kiki and Loki made valiant efforts to come along too, but the trip started without them and with a remarkably horrid freak April blizzard en route to Nevada...

the view out the window from my Jeep-hammock on morning #1

After we awoke to a snow dump and packed up wet gear and pushed and pulled the vans out of the wet sandy snowy campsite, we moseyed on to see some Ichthyosaur action in Berlin-Ichthyosaur state park, also coated in snow.



The next day we ventured off to find some Redlichid trilobites, but that too was covered in snow. Amazingly, one of the SSU girls found this awesome specimen.


Then a few of us took a break from geology and took a romp through an abandoned brothel, check out the snazzy wallpaper!



After some snooping we continued on to investigate some archaeocyathid reefs, which took us into the next day and up Mt Dunphy (near Goldpoint), where some oddly angled stromatolites can be found.



On our final day, the weather had cleared spectacularly and we hit the fossil jackpot with some pretty fabulous ammonites.