April 22, 2012

Great day today. Left the quad by 10am with Ed, Steven, and John in John's pickup. He drove us down to the Palmer Creek unit to spend the day. Palmer is the hardest part of BNP to get into, and the most remote. Few people visit, and it's a pretty fun ride to get out there, in a bouncy, hold on to your seat, let's hope the 4WD makes it sort of way. Takes about two hours from the quad to get into the Palmer area. Ed had been there before on a paleo dig, so was very familiar with the two-track roads and land forms, which was mighty nice. He wanted to take us to a spot he visited last year on a dig, which happens to also be the site of a famous National Geographic dig from the 1940s. Ed brought along the article from that historic trip which included photographs. You can still find remnants from their camp: old kerosene tins and sardine cans. Also interesting is that the kinds of fossils you find in Palmer can be quite different from the north unit of Badlands. We found a myriad of fossil bits. There are channels in the rock from old stream beds which are particularly rich in a random assortment of everything. Ed brought us up to the right level, and as he told John “if you can't find a fossil here, you might as well give up looking altogether.” Everywhere you look is fossils by the handfuls. Fish, birds, hippos, rhinos, deer, rabbits. John found two skulls, but the best find of the day was by Ed. We'd been climbing around for a while looking at all the jumble, when he gave a loud exclamation and started laughing. Last year at the end of the dig he was on, he had discovered this locality we were investigating yesterday. He had an hour before they left to look around, and one thing he had found was a half of a metacarpal from a bird. Birds and fish are rare, so everyone was pretty excited. He looked and looked, but could not find any other pieces from the bird last year. Yesterday, while looking at everything around, he found that other half of bone, from the same bird. Incredible! He said that's his find of the year, and later texted his boss who is also ecstatic. Ed and John continued with fossil hunting while Stephen climbed around the buttes and canyons, photographing. I did some of both, taking off on my own at times, and coming back to look at more fossils. It was tremendously cool. The weather was so beautiful: perfect, clear blue sky, very warm, light breeze.

We left Palmer when it was getting to be dinner time, and on the way back got a call from Katie, who runs the bookstore, inviting us out to her family's ranch for games after dinner. Ryan drove Ed and I to meet Katie at the Wagon Wheel before heading on to the ranch. To get out to the ranch, you have to drive through the river. As she described it, when she was a kid, they would have to alter their method of getting in and out depending on the river. Canoe, truck, whatever worked. It was pretty fun to go dashing into the river in a truck in the dark. Even more fun on the way home later, with the sky filled by stars.

Note: as I write this, I realize I've forgotten the identity of a number of the fossils. I'll check with Ed and update later.