5-30-16 Fossils and Volcanoes (NW Colorado, SW Wyoming, and SE Idaho)

 

We left the Colorado Plateau area and headed north and west from Moab, UT.  The Colorado Plateau was a great place for Linda (and Bob) to get a better understanding of geology. The entire area has been uplifted almost as a single unit and you can see the interrelationships of the various rock layers of the plateau at each of the national parks and monuments we visited from the Grand Canyon through Utah.  The brightly colored rock left bare by dryness, lack of vegetation cover, and erosion allow you to easily see the various rock layers.  The oxidation of iron (rust) gives rise to the famous “red rocks” along with all sorts of interesting and very photogenic features such as hoodoos, domes, goblins, arches, natural bridges, slot canyons, etc.  It has the greatest concentration of the US National Parks and Monuments, many which we visited.  See our two prior posts for details. If you haven’t been there, try to visit sometime – it’s fabulous.

 

NPS Picture of New Dinosaur, Utah Museum

Our first brush with fossils came while we were in Page, AZ, earlier in our trip; we had stopped at a Visitor Center for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  The various rock formations here document a time when southern Utah went from being underwater to a lush coastal and marsh environment where dinosaurs roamed.  The dinosaurs here are different from the dinosaurs that lived roughly at the same time in nearby areas. The exhibit was mostly about the dinosaurs that lived between 75 and 95 million years ago.  

 

 

Atrist Rendition of New Dinosaur, Mural at Visitor Center
 

The curator, an archeologist, Merle Graffam, gave a great discussion about the type of fossils to be found here.  In fact, he discovered a new dinosaur, with feathers, that was eventually named after him.   It was closely related to or the same as a dinosaur fossil found only in Russia.  

We headed into the fossil-rich areas of NW Colorado, SW Wyoming and SE Idaho.  Geologic conditions of shallow seas, freshwater lakes, ponds, bogs and streams were the environments for dinosaurs, fish and other vertebrate animals.   These conditions generated and preserved a lot of fossils from various geologic ages. Fortunately for us, only partial erosion of these fossil-bearing rocks and layers through geologic time have left many of the fossils in place and accessible to us in the 20^th century. 

Exhibit at Dinosaur National Monument

The geologically-oldest stop was Dinosaur National Monument in NW Colorado and NE Utah.  The fossils were discovered in 1909 and protected in 1915. It is very interesting to see the earliest photos of spectators traveling great distances in horse-drawn wagons and the earliest autos to this remote area to see these fossils.  The intense interest and efforts by these people was incredible, generated only by printed newspapers and magazines – this is true for all these discoveries of nature    These fossils are about 150 million years old. 

 

In_site (In Place) Dinosaur Bones in Quarry Wall. Exhibit Hall

 The largest fossil “quarry” there contains the most concentrated and diverse collection of Jurassic Period dinosaur bones, including complete skeletons which are now housed in several of the world’s greatest museums.  The fossil bones have been left in place so you can see over 1500 dinosaur fossils exposed on the cliff face inside the Quarry Exhibit Hall.  The hall was actually built around the quarry wall to protect and preserve it.  It is hypothesized that the quarry wall represents a deep pool on a stream that collected the larger animals that died quickly during a flood and swept into the pool, and that were then preserved as mud (now solid rock) covered the dead dinosaurs. This could explain the huge number and concentration of only large dinosaur’s bones….the smaller Jurassic dinosaurs would have been swept further downstream.

Excellent Preserved Fish at Fossil Butte

Displaying even younger fossils, Fossil Butte National Monument, “America’s Aquarium in Stone”, is located in SW Wyoming. It has the best visitor center and fossil exhibition of all the places we visited.  A large lush lake in a warm, wet environment about 52 million years ago generated a plethora of life forms in an abundant ecosystem.  A single “limestone” layer captured the entire ecosystem, and the fine sediments, along with an anoxic and salty bottom environment, caused everything, including soft body parts, feathers, and scales to be preserved.  The fossils have amazing details and the plants and animals are preserved almost to perfection. It is estimated that over two million specimens have been found in the last 125 years.   Today, less than 1.5% of Fossil Lake is protected and managed by the National Park Service. Fossil Butte National Monument is a site that promotes the protection of this world-class paleontological heritage.  You can purchase excellent quality fossils in nearby Kemmerer, WY which have been dug out from the private (not protected) quarries in the area.

Bob with Hagerman Horse

The youngest fossils were found at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument in SE Idaho.  The fossils found here are only about 3 to 4 million years old, and represent several different ecosystems: wetlands and grasslands. These fossils have been useful in helping to provide a record of evolutionary changes in the plants and animals as the landscape and climate evolved.  The fossil beds protect more than 220 fossilized species including the unique “Hagerman Horse”, the extinct North American horse (the wild western horses we know were from the Spanish conquistadors in the 1500s).  As a note, there also used to be a camel-like creature that is now extinct.

The visitor center at Hagerman was not up to usual Park Service standards, and with the exception of the horse, could easily be by passed. However, this visitor center also had a very interesting exhibit about the nearby Minidoka National Historic Site where thousands of Japanese Americans (and other Asian races) were interned during WWII.  We have heard of these activities, but this exhibit is the most graphic and informative we have ever seen.

Seeing various fossil beds so closely together gave us a greater perspective on the various geologic ages and how they relate to each other.  The most astonishing fact is that there have been at least 4 mass extinction events (at least 50% of the species extinct)  in the worlds 4.5 billion year history.  Most of us are aware of only the one that supposedly “destroyed” the dinosaurs. 

We departed the fossil fields and continued into Southeast Idaho and the famous Snake River Valley. On our first night in Idaho we parked at the Pocatello Elks Lodge located in downtown Pocatello near the once-huge Union Pacific Railroad yard. Interestingly, the city of Pocatello and the Elks Lodge have closely intertwined history related to the Union Pacific Railroad.  The City was established in 1860, as a stop on the Union Pacific Railroad during the gold rush.  During the railroad’s days of massive employment, the Elks Lodge had over a thousand members who found it convenient to use the facilities (bar) on their way home from work. Now, the Lodge has only 180 members.  We spent a couple of enjoyable hours at the bar talking with a few members about the Lodge and City history. One robust, sophisticated and very articulate and savvy member is noteworthy. He is a former railroad worker and is 90 years old and has been an Elk for 65 years and has many interesting things to talk about.  Bob told him that he hopes to be standing at an Elks Lodge bar (or any bar) when he 90 years old telling his life stories to anyone who will listen  This is just one example of the interesting and “informative” characters we are meeting on this trip

Linda at Shoshone Falls ID on her 65th

We visited Shoshone Falls on the Snake River in Twin Falls, Idaho which is nicknamed the “Niagara Falls” of the west (frankly there is little comparison). We were destined to see a lot of the Snake River over the next few weeks from here to its origin in Yellowstone National Park. Linda celebrated her 65^th this day.  

 The Snake River Plains in Idaho is much about volcanos, cinder cones, and lave flows. We drove north and east in the Snake River Plain across miles of older lava flows with shallow soil and heavily irrigated crops and progressively younger flows and cones that looked like they were deposited yesterday.  We spent two days camping and hiking in the Craters of the Moon National Monument where NASA actually trained for moon walks.  The Craters NM includes extensive lava flows and several cinder cones from volcanic eruptions over the Great Rift “hot spot”.

Craters Volcanoes and Lava Fields

This is an opportunity to see “Plate Tectonics” in action where the North American and Pacific plates are colliding and magma is relatively close to the surface. Over the past 18 million years or so, this hotspot in the earth’s mantle has remained stationary while the earth’s crust (North American Plate) has moved southwest “moving” the hotspot from under the Snake River Plains to its current location under Yellowstone NP.  This hotspot has generated the succession of violent eruptions with floods of lava flows and has the potential for eruptions in the great Yellowstone caldera. 

 

Craters of the Moons Lava Field from Space, NASA

The lava fields are visible from space; large totally black areas in an otherwise green landscape. 

Spring flowers on 7000 yr old cinder cone, Craters

The lava fields from an eruption about 2000 years ago have almost no growth on them.  The cinder cones and lava fields from an eruption about 7000 years ago, have some low grasses, and a few trees.  It is hard to believe that it takes 7000 years for the lava to break down enough to support plant life. 

Bob hiking Lava Tubes Craters of Moon

We hiked the lava fields and saw cinder cones, splatter cones and even walked through lava tubes. 
As a pleasant attraction from black lava flows and fossil fields, spring continues to follow us as we travel….wildflowers everywhere.  Even the older lava beds had small plants with tiny flowers on them.   

We continue to be awe of these beautiful environments and how God used the natural processes of nature to shape and reshape this incredible and dynamic planet Earth.  We are blessed to be able to make this trip and follow in the footprints of the earliest explorers of nature. Everyone should be so fortunate.

We now head east to Jackson Hole WY and the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.  We are looking forward to our niece, Breanna Adams, visiting us in Yellowstone to share in the wonders.

The weather has been colder than we expected, and we have had to use our propane heat every night and buy an extra blanket.  The days are getting warmer, but it is still early spring most of the places we are visiting.