Copper Harbor, Michigan

We are at Copper Harbor, Michigan. Weather is great, breezy, cool and not too buggy :-).

We a staying at Fort Wilkins State Park sandwiched between Lake Fanny Hooe and Lake Superior.



Lake Fanny Hooe is warm and beautiful! Lots of good rock hunting and about fifty feet from our campsite.



Lake superior is about 100 yards from our site. Brian and I took a drive to the very tip of the peninsula to a cove called Agate Beach :-). The drive was hard back road driving and quite an adventure.

Below, a fallen tree across the road.


Below, beautiful flora





The beach was very remote and we only saw four or five cars the entire day, three of which were work trucks. The area is known for black bears so we brought our bear spray.




The water is much colder than Lake Fanny Hooe but still nice.



Ahhh, Agate Beach, we are sure to find some cool rocks here!




And the cool rocks below...





Below, the grey stone is called a pudding stone, the first rock I found on the beach :-)





We will hit the local rock shop to get more books for identifying these rocks and minerals. I think I have at least one Agate and two or three agate chips...proper photos will follow as soon as I confirm my agate is what my keen rock hunting instincts tells me and not just a hunk of limestone( I'm good at finding limestone)

Below, my rock hunting spot on Lake Fanny Hooe. Quiet, secluded, felt like the end of the earth...sweet :-)


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Minnesota

Minnesota was a blast. Mom and dad are staying at uncle Lenard's and Aunt Jan's, and were kind enough to make room for us too. We could only stay a 8 days, but hopefully next time we will get stay longer.

Below, telling tall tales around the supper table. :-)



Wish we could of stayed longer! Miss my momma already!





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Bones, Bones, or just old Rocks

No Internet, or at least not enough to blog with until now :-). Will try to catch up.
back in.....awe heck, I have trouble with time, let's just say a few weeks ago ( what month is it anyways?).




Was at the Buffalo Gap National Grassland South Dakota and came across some really cool stuff. As an OR nurse I've handle a lot of raw bone and well these rocks looked just like bone to me!
I took a piece(s) back to the RV before I realized that 1.) they were possibly fossils 2.) it was illegal to take fossils from a National Grassland. Drats! did I want to keep this beautiful fossil. It looked just like a bone but was a rock! It sounds so simple, but I'd never handled anything like it....fascinating




So the next day we trekked back to the site and put it back. That is when I realized that when I originally picked up that one weathered bone the day before ( the one you see in the photo below), there was another sitting right next to it that I never even noticed! Boy, my powers of observation were so focused on that one bone. I had never expected to see anything so fascinating, let alone another sitting pretty right next to it. Frankly, I thought I was being punked by the locals, it was just too perfect.
Below: putting back the bone. The ground still had a perfect indentation so I knew just where to put it :-). Of course, that's when I noticed the other bone




Anyways, we put everything we thought was bone back. I emailed the Forestry Department with pictures of what we saw with latitude and longitude.








Below: Lousy picture, but interesting jumble of stuff.




Below, some of the bone with petrified wood and some cool rocks. Again, the bone went back to it's home!




Below, our second trip to the "bone" site. Felt kinda weird just putting all that cool stuff back on the ground, but that is what the forestry says to do and I didn't want to start my first foray into amateur paleontology as a poacher( is that what you call em?). Hopefully they get to it before the next rain washes it away.




I know there was much more to be discovered, but I can only hunt for about an hour then it's time for a/c and rest. I can't wait to be fully recovered from my "ordeal" so much fun to be had, I could of stayed out there all day! Brian was happy as a clam, but kaela, our 16 1/2 year old dog just wanted to hang in the truck.




So this is what I had left, lots of petrified wood, cool rocks, some I think might be agates.




RV site near the Grasslands. Next we head for Minnesota to visit mom and dad, then on to Copper Harbor for some real rock hunting fun :-) and some one on one with the great Lake Superior.




Below, neat-o picture. Guess what it is?




Grains of sand... now those are cool little rocks :-)
Cheers,
Erika and Brian
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Quick shout out to Rodney

It's been one Year since my Brain surgery where they removed "Rodney the stowaway" and friends.
Hey Rodney, kiss my grits :-).





Erika


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It was during my enchanted days of travel that the idea came to me, which, through the years, has come into my thoughts again and again and always happily—the idea that geology is the music of the earth.
— Hans Cloos



I've lately, as the poem above suggests, been very enthralled with rocks, fossils and meteorites. While traipsing around Wyoming I've picked up some interesting items right off the ground, and plucked from the rivers and streams.


Yesterday, Brian's Geologist friend Chris spent 4th of July with us. It was a lot of fun, we watched the parade and then came back to the RV for bratwurst and potato salad. Eventhough it was Chris's day off, Chris went through all my rocks, explained what they were, how they were formed, even where they came from. Very cool!


Chris teaches every summer up at Timber Lake Ranch and lives in Virginia the rest of the year. Pretty good gig :-)




( back to my rocks)
My most exciting find was a gastrolith. Gastroliths are stones that dinosaurs eat to aid in digestion. I thought I had Jasper:-) But instead it is a chert stone swallowed most likely by a brachiosaurus in the Jurassic period!!( two exclamations are in order, and I am restraining myself you see). BUT for full disclosure I must say the only problem with my specimen is that I put olive oil on it about a week ago to bring out the colors better. Chris does thinks it is a gastrolith out of the Morrison formation, says it does taint the authenticity a bit, but still has no problem saying it is a real gastrolith. All the other markers are there. :-). Chris also happened to of found a gastrolith just the other day a few miles from where I found mine and was kind enough to give it to me. So I have TWO gastroliths...my stoneths runneth over :-) ( He He I love geology humor). It took great restain on my part not to put them under my pillow last night as I slept...you understand right? These rocks were inside DINOSAURS!













Another find which Chris called my most interesting piece is a fossilized sand ripple. The picture will not do it justice but will try anyways. You know how sand can make a ripple pattern from the wind and waves? Well this is a fossilized sand ripple....too cool.


Above, example of sand ripples


My fossilized sand ripple. Like I said, the picture just doesn't do it justice.
Oh and my earlier post of a rock that I thought was a fossil was actually uh er fossilized mud :-)



What you see is 510 million year old limestone mud. The mud would dry and flake off from the wind and the flakes would sink into the mud. The official name is Flat pebble conglomerate. Well if you are still reading this your eyes are glazed so I won't show any more rocks, though I could if you want me to......no? ello? ello? Anyone there? Did I loose you at 510 million year old limestone? Well the Devils Tower is next, gotta be some good stuff around there so girdle your loins!

Adieu

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Blog

I'm still having trouble with my blog software. Some of my parade pictures were erased and some were duplicated, sorry. I think the iPad is not the best for blogging, maybe when I get up to Minnesota I will sit down with a real computer and try to clean up all of the errors...but that is a lot if work....:-)


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HAPPY 4th of July!!

PARADE IN DUBOIS, WYOMING




















































~~~~~~~~~~~~HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA~~~~~~~~~~~~
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