Dig-Dig #6: Americana

When staying at Gem Mountain, the closest town for showers and groceries is Philipsburg, Montana.

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A beautifully kept town, maintaining a robust balance between historical preservation and modern standards. It is refreshing to be able to easily imagine life a hundred years ago while lacking for nothing.

The Club Bar is the perfect spot for a drink on a hot afternoon. Very friendly staff and patrons, and we lucked upon "happy hour".

The locally-made Dump Truck Bock was light but full of flavour. Highly recommended.

Delicious thick beef stew at the Gem Mountain campground that night, accompanied by an adequate Zinfandel from Ravenswood.

The view from the dinner table.

On the way to Wyoming.

Afton, Wyoming: home of the world's largest elk horn arch.


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If you are driving down Interstate 15 in Utah with a trunk full of fish fossils and think you feel your front left wheel wobbling and start to fear that your '94 Escort Wagon with 205,000 km on it is telling you the trip is taking a bad turn, you could do a lot worse than to take exit 279 into Lehi and turn right. Big O Tires is there and ready to take a look while you wait.


It is hard to overstate how friendly, polite, professional and speedy the Big O crew were. Taylor, Blair and the whole team made the process painless and eased our worries, finding no mechanical faults in their thorough inspection. Someone around Lehi is bringing their kids up right. And someone knows how to generate a positive impression of a big-chain business, too. Big O charged a big 0$ for this greatly-appreciated service. Highly recommended.

Up next: an oasis in the desert, and a desert in the oasis.

Dig-Dig #5: Fossil Safari, Wyoming

The long drive of the previous day paid off in that we were within a couple of hours of the next destination: Fossil Safari, near Kemmerer, Wyoming. The white spots on the map below are the actual quarry sites. Three huge antelope, looking very African, skipped across the dirt road during the last mile.


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This was really, really fun. The big slabs of rock pop open with a satisfying, dry crack after a few whacks with a hammer and chisel. By carefully pursuing a split along the edge, you can peel off sheet after sheet like thumbing through a book with very thick pages. The fish are all within, having been gently pressed like flowers over millions of years. Revealing them is truly an exciting moment.

One of Aya's early finds: a little herring, previous tenant of the ocean that was here before the desert came.

One classroom from our little school of petrified fish.

Chris, the very friendly, helpful and informative host, used his robotic arm attachment to cut our bigger finds into transportable pieces.

This caused a stir. One of the regulars, who hunts for fossils to sell, cracked open an average-looking slab to reveal this monster. Looking at Fossil Safari's website, we think it might be a mioplosus, but that's only because we think we know what we're talking about and we don't. The arrangement with the quarry is that you get to keep smaller, common fossils while they keep the big, rare finds. This one was instantly claimed by the quarry, which might have put a bit of a damper on the elation the finder felt at the biggest hit of his career.

Here's a video of Keith splitting a large slab to reveal...




Here are some of the larger, complete ones that we brought home:
The lower piece was part of a "mortality layer" where it appears that many fish died at about the same time, probably due to a landslide or other natural disaster. There were eight whole fish and a few pieces on this one slab, which we cut up for transporting.

A fantastic double-sided fossil, with the split going right down the center of the fish. Perhaps history's first kipper.


This, our largest one is still partially covered by a fine layer of rock. We will use a Dremmel tool to gently reveal its petro-ichthystic glory.

Dig-Dig #4: Wyoming Hotspring

Aya researched natural hot springs before we left. This one wasn't exactly on the list, but we could smell it while we were looking for a different one. Though it was on private land, there were no signs warning against trespass and the road had no gate.

Here's the Google Maps link.

The large pool was lukewarm, but the white mineral deposits on the far side suggested something better.

Lovely hot water bubbling out of connected pools, from about a meter to two meters deep. We quickly became accustomed to the light sulfur smell and enjoyed a long, glorious soak, listening to the gurgling sounds of the springs echoing under the hollow rock formations.

We saw pools like this in Yellowstone NP many years ago but of course they were off-limits. It was amazing to be able to gently slip into one and enjoy the hot water.

Lightning flashed in the sky around us and the sun set behind storm clouds while we set up our tent without a drop of rain.