A Map and a Mustang: The American Dream

Blog post from August 4/5, 2014 (posted at later date due to lack of internet connection):

There are many versions of the American dream. To some, the American dream is to work hard, make money, have a great house, and raise a family. To others, the American dream is all about seizing one's destiny and following life's more winding roads freely. There are a thousand different interpretations of the dream. However, I've found that no matter what version of the American dream you're looking at, they're all based on the same thing: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And those things are things that I have been pursuing in abundance on this trip. Monday was a kind of reflection of the idyllic 70's American dream: nothing but open roads and endless possibilities (well, as long as the possibilities were within the states of Colorado, Utah, or Wyoming).

We left Steamboat Springs early in the morning and hit the open road. The removal of the rear sway bar was completed approximately 3 miles outside of the town as the last piece of forgotten hardware hit the road (oops). From there on out it was nothing but sunshine and butterflies, alternating with a good amount of cloudy gray weather. The landscape was both gorgeous and terrifically boring, depending on how many hours I had been staring at it and whether or not the sun was out.

It looks exactly the same in front of me and behind me!

My favorite state sign!

Our first stop was in Vernal, UT where the entrance to Dinosaur National Monument is located. Dinosaur is most known for its incredible "dinosaur boneyard" wall, which is an outcrop of rock containing hundreds of dinosaur fossils now enclosed in a huge building that protects the bones from the elements. To briefly summarize, the boneyard was created by a series of river flood events that drowned dinosaurs and washed them downstream to pile up in a great jumble of bones. These bones were eventually buried and then fossilized as the rock around them lithified; now, over a hundred million years later, paleontologists have excavated them and revealed one of the largest dinosaur quarries in the U.S. Truly a fascinating place to visit! We didn't spend much time at Dinosaur as I had been before, but it was still a nice little detour in our trip.

This bus is far too huge

Vernal, UT is a strange, silly place

Our next stop was Flaming Gorge National Recreational Area. It's known for having some of the most beautiful landscape in that corner of Utah. Unfortunately, the weather was NOT cooperating and it was just gray for the majority of our visit. Nevertheless, we saw some great sights driving down the Geological Loop and around the overlooks. The sun did manage to come out a bit later on and I got some great shots at Sheep Creek Canyon.

Holy fault and fold structures Batman!

Jane was being excellent, though I did have a problem with the gas tank pressurizing again as we went up a steep slope for a long time. Fortunately the problem was solved by just taking the gas cap off and letting it sit for a bit. (edit: I think I solved the problem for good when I reoriented the gas tank vent valve to the proper orientation a day later)

From Flaming Gorge we continued north to Kemmerer, WY, one of the best fossil fish localities in the U.S. Along the way we got some absolutely gorgeous shots of the end of the day - not quite sunset, but that time of day when the sun's going down and vintage cars look their absolute best.

Today we headed out to hunt for some fossil fish! Kemmerer, WY is known for their excellently preserved Eocene age freshwater fish. It's located right in the middle of an ancient lakebed, so there are many places to go to split shale to find fish. Because it had rained really hard the night before and I was not in the mood for more off-roading adventures with Jane, we opted to go to the one place in town that did not require you to drive your own vehicle to the quarry. We spent a few hours splitting shale (which was unfortunately very wet so it crumbled easily, destroying the fossils in the process) and ended up with some pretty nice fish! Unfortunately our "guide" was terrible and didn't care about his job or our fossils, so all of them were broken when he tossed them unceremoniously into the trunk of the SUV. I'm going to try to salvage them because I can get my hands on some decent glue and preparatory tools (hurray for being a student paleontologist), but still very disappointed. No pictures of the fish now as I wrapped them all up to preserve them from further damage before I thought to take some pictures.

Despite the disappointing fish hunting, we pressed on! Next visit was Fossil Butte National Monument, which is basically a museum dedicated to showcasing some of the area's best fossils. They had an absolutely amazing collection of fossil fish, turtles, crocodiles, birds, bats, plants, and mammals. There had to have been hundreds of fossils in their visitor center. Very cool little place in the middle of nowhere! We finished up the day with a hike to the old quarry that the founding paleontologists pulled the fossils from a hundred years ago.