Today's quest is to find some dinosaur tracks I read about online, so I set off for a short hike in Capitol Reef National Park.

Torrey was windy and 40 degrees, but down in Capitol Reef National Park it was 65 degrees and wind-free. After about a week of wind I finally found some shelter .

I liked how the cloud layer permitted the sun to highlight this cliff. It looked like nature was making a peephole.


The Sulpher Creek trailhead is across Highway 24 from "The Chimney" parking area in the park. I hiked about 1/2 mile down the dry wash through the Moenkopi layers of fossilized mud ripples that can look fake because the ripples are so well-defined and perfect.

Within the Moenkopi layer is the yellow/orange colored Sinbad Limestone layer. This is where I thought the fossilized tracks would be.

When I reached a small area of the limestone, I looked all over for tracks. All I could see was fuzzy impressions of what might be tracks from very small reptiles. I was underwhelmed, but it was fun to look for the tracks. For someone who had never seen dino tracks before, these would be a disappointment. Most people want to see the giant, three-toed tracks.

Here is the photo of a trackway. Look for a couple round-ish ripply patterns in the rock.
























The exciting part of this hike wasn't, of course, what I came looking for. The unexpected treasure was this fossil, perched partway up a layer of sandstone.




According to Wikipedia, some of the fossils found in this layer include, "the

brachiopod genus Lingula and the ammonite genus Meekoceras." This, I am guessing, is an ammonite. It measures 4" in diameter and was the only thing like in in the hundreds of rock areas I sampled. Amazing.






Another interesting find was an area of rocks covered in what I think are dendrites. These look like tiny, dark, spidery, lacy fossilized ferns, but are really a crystallized oxide of something, like manganese.




















I'm glad I went on this hike today. I'm going to ask the park ranger about the fossilized tracks and the ammonite to find out where else I can see stuff like this. On the way I'll find something else unexpected. Mostly, I want to learn to recognize the various rock layers, what era they're from and what I can find embedded in them.

But it's not as if I have an obsession with old, dead stuff.