Delta... Where?

Delta, Utah, is south of Salt Lake City and half way to Bryce Canyon.  We stopped here to go to the "U-Dig Fossils" Trilobite Quarry, since we missed the dinosaur dig in Thermopolis by 2 days.

You know I keep saying every place we stop proves to have more than we can possibly see in a day? Delta (population 3500) is no exception.  In addition to the trilobite quarry there is Topaz Mountain, where people find topaz stones lying around; Topaz Camp, a Japanese internment camp dating from WWII; a place where geodes abound (those stones you cut in half and find beautiful crystals inside); a great rock and fossil store; and a very new coal-fired power plant owned by the city of Los Angelos, CA  Who'd a thought???

We took a drive the evening we arrived.

We wanted to see the Japanese internment camp:

Most of the buildings were gone, but dirt roads remained, along with a few scattered artifacts that were a ghostly reminder:

The view of the mountain ranges was reassuring:

And yielded another beautiful sunset:

The next morning we left for the trilobite quarry.  The instructions were to drive 30 miles west on a paved road.  Did I mention Delta is in the middle of a high desert?

Then we were to drive 20 miles north on a gravel road:

which eventually led to a small mountain range:

And a quarry of Cambrian-aged shale!

And no, we were not the only ones there. About 10 others arrived before the end of the day.  It is the end of the season, after all.  The day was a beautiful day - 78 degrees.  I was grateful not to be there during the heat of summer.  Here is Lee, getting ready to strike a shale rock to see what surprises might reside within.  His bucket already has a few items in it.

We found trilobites, fossilized in the shale!  Nothing exceptional, nothing over an inch long.  But still, all in all, a very satisfying day. 

Thermopolis (con't)

What I enjoyed most about Thermopolis was the landscape and surrounding hills.  The colors were beautiful.  I will dispense with text, just enjoy the photos.  Imagine being surrounded by these amazing vistas.

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Thermopolis River, below:

Round Top Mountain:

Thermopolis! (and Cody)

Last year Lee and I visited Yellowstone and then the Grand Tetons, directly south.  The two parks share a border.  This year we chose to visit two towns to the east of the two parks, Cody and Thermopolis.  (This was before we came south to Salt Lake City, a couple of weeks ago.)

Cody is home of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, which we visited over a period of 2 days.  When I visited this museum 30 years ago, it was a smallish building loaded with stuff dealing with Buffalo Bill and the West, including Charles Russell and Frederick Remington art and sculptures.  Today, it is a large complex of 5 different museums, and the collections have grown.  The 5 categories are Firearms, Western Art, Natural History, Buffalo Bill, and the Plains Indians.  All interesting, and all deserving of time.

Cody, by the way, serves as one of several gateways into Yellowstone National Park.  Enough about Cody.

On to Thermopolis.  I really enjoyed Thermopolis.  First off, I really like the name.  Say "Thermopolis" over and over again.  What a great name!  The "thermo" refers to the hot springs, and the "polis", to me, conjures up a city teeming with people and grand importance.  It's really a very small town, with a population of 3009, according to the 2010 census.

So, it's a small town, but it has 4 things of interest.  1) "The world's largest mineral springs" (which I could not verify, but which is claimed everywhere); 2) a dinosaur museum; 3) petroglyphs; and 4) beautiful red hillsides all around. 

Let's start with the mineral springs, a thermal feature, and not surprising considering the town's proximity to Yellowstone:

The mineral springs are part of a state park. The mineral water is naturally about 145 degrees year-round.  The waters are cooled to be suitable for humans, to about 104 degrees.   The state provides a free bath house.  Two large swimming pools are run by concessionaires, and a fee is charged for their use.  I have no photos - they look like regular swimming pools, but with very warm water. Here are a couple of more photos of the formations created by a hardening of the minerals as they drip towards the Thermopolis River:

Next, the dinosaur museum, which is a private entity:

 

What makes it special?  Well, visitors can sign up, during the summer, for a half day or full day of digging for dinosaurs!  We were two days late, so it's on our list for a future trip.  Spring or fall would be best, to avoid the summer heat.  The museum does include specimens starting with the most ancient and simplest of life forms.  Here are a few of the displays, starting with sea lilies, or Crinoids (actually an animal, not a plant):

Dinosaurs, of course:

Here is a duckbill dinosaur with its nest of young 'uns:

And a model of Ted Daeschler's Tiktaalic, an ancient Devonian fish that had wrist bones:

Several miles up the road from Thermopolis, we checked out the:

This area was part of an old native American trail that connected Yellowstone and Thermopolis, both very sacred areas to those people.  Petroglyphs here range in date from 11,000 years ago to about 150 years ago. The first photo is of the oldest glyphs, difficult to see because they are so old:

Here are a few more, starting with the thunderbird, my favorite:

A human figure, of sorts:

A prisoner:

A goat above, a deer below?

This is getting long, so I will stop here.  Thermopolis, to be continued!

The Unexpected

One of the things I like best about our adventure is finding the unexpected.  We have seen the places that everyone knows about, like Yellowstone, but we have also accidentally found places that are less well known but are gems in their own right.  One such place was Custer State Park, in the southern Black Hills of South Dakota.

First off, we stayed in a small campground just south of Custer, South Dakota.  It was unique, because it invited motorhomes and people pulling horse trailers.  There were stables for the horses, and we could go over to them to say hello whenever we wished.  It doesn't get any better than that!!

We were greeted on our day of arrival by a most beautiful rainbow, that foretold of lovely things to come:

The rainbow was followed that evening by a spectacular sunset.

Lee and I both loved this area.  It was comfortable and beautiful and a little out of the way.  

The second day we explored the Crazy Horse Monument, about which I wrote in an earlier post.

The third day was my favorite - we explored Custer State Park.  As we entered the park, I asked the ranger where we might find the buffalo.  He sent us several miles south, and then west on a dirt road for a few miles.  We found the buffalo:

and also a VERY LARGE prairie dog town that went on for miles and miles. Who knew??  We watched the antics of the little fellows with delight, and heard a fair amount of "barking", their signal for danger.  Did you know that prairie dogs have an extensive vocabulary when it comes to danger?  Specific barks relay how large the danger is, where it is, and how fast it is approaching.  Amazing.  I once got to scratch the tummy of a prairie dog at the Academy of Natural Sciences.  He was so happy with the tummy scratch I fell in love with him.  As with all wild animals however, they do not make good pets.  They are happier with their own kind. 

We had dinner at a lodge in the park, then went hunting, a little on the late side because the sun was setting fast, to find the Cathedral Spires.  We found them on a narrow winding road.  I hope to return someday when we can explore them in the light of day. 

Who knew?? Amazing!