Hi there,
This is Alan. I thought I’d take the helm of the blog for this week, since I’m the one who was enrolled in the class and theoretically knows how to spell the big geological words like Cretaceous and allochthonous. Cara here: I don’t know about Alan, but Olli and I had a BLAST at Dino Camp. Alan’s been pushing me to blog all week, but the fact is, I was on VACATION. My week was not terribly blog-worthy. But I’ll stick my 2 cents in in italics.
Today we got practice taking down the camp, and it seems like we’re getting faster at it. We got packed up and were ready on campus at 8am. We actually were out of the KOA at 6:50!! SO proud. There was time to stop for gas, and even coffee at a little independent coffee shop. We were on campus WAITING for the bookstore to open at 7:40 so Alan could get his lab notebook, and then we met our group.
There were two vans full of students, plus several cars other than our own, so we had quite a caravan. The ratio of pit stops to traveling wasn’t as good as we could do on our own, but the frequent stops allowed us to get to know my classmates. The drive to Glendive, MT was about 360 miles, so we got there in the afternoon. The class was called “Paleontology of the Hell Creek Formation,” which is a formation of Cretaceous sedimentary rock (formed from 65 to 75 million years ago) that runs from southern Alberta to Wyoming and is known for its rich dinosaur beds.
The class was focused around Makoshika State Park, which is the most windswept, desolate, seemingly barren place I’ve seen. When we drove in the front entrance, it was like arriving on the moon. Huge eroded sandstone buttes (cliffs) surrounded us, and a dried up, mud-lined riverbed ran next to the road. It was eerily beautiful though, with rock of different colors and fascinating eroded shapes. Makoshika (ma-KO-shi-ka) WAS desolate at the entrance. It looked something like I imagined Mars would look like. But once we got in … wow. Beautiful. There wasn’t as much plant life as other places we’ve been to, although for the first time I saw cactus growing in the wild.
Field camp was at the Lion’s Club camp, a typical summer camp with a main kitchen and scattered cabins. Getting to the camp wasn’t typical though. We followed the road to the end of the pavement, then continued on for another three miles down the one-way curvy gravel road that was literally barely a flat line between hilltops. I don’t mind mountain driving, but this was another story. The road was so steep that when we reached the top, we couldn’t see where the road went on the other side!
We chose to sleep in our tent rather than sharing a cabin with strangers. Except for Olli. He decided one evening that being indoors was better than having privacy. But when he wanted to search for mice and dust bunnies at 4am, he was ejected from his first sleepover. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
First night was dinner, getting to know people, and intro to the course. The people were all experienced teachers at various stages in the program and various stages of life. They were from San Francisco to Hawaii to Brazil to Argentina to Arizona… so basically we’ll have friends to visit almost anywhere in the country! It was fun hanging around with other science geeks who were interested in insect collecting, bird watching, astronomy, and geology. Anytime there was a natural phenomenon I didn’t understand, I could ask an expert! That first night, we took out our instruments and many classmates circled around. It wasn’t exactly a sing-along, as most of them were too self-conscious about their voices and/or didn’t know the music, but a couple people sang along on a couple of songs, and everyone was enthusiastic about the music. I think we were both a little shy because it felt so much like a concert, but it was fun.
There were two professors for the course, a paleontologist (dinosaur/fossil expert) and a geologist (rock expert). Between the two of them, they do a CSI interpretation of any fossil find. Jim says, “Based on the size of the particles in the sediment, we know this was a river at the time of fossil formation, and judging by the size of the layers it must have been at least a meter deep and moving 60 cm per second.” Then Frankie chimes in, “Based on the gnaw marks on the bones and the fact that the skeleton is only 55% complete, we know this was flowed downstream from where it was originally preyed upon.” Wow. There’s a beauty in watching a professional work, and there was no shortage of that this week!
This is Alan. I thought I’d take the helm of the blog for this week, since I’m the one who was enrolled in the class and theoretically knows how to spell the big geological words like Cretaceous and allochthonous. Cara here: I don’t know about Alan, but Olli and I had a BLAST at Dino Camp. Alan’s been pushing me to blog all week, but the fact is, I was on VACATION. My week was not terribly blog-worthy. But I’ll stick my 2 cents in in italics.
Today we got practice taking down the camp, and it seems like we’re getting faster at it. We got packed up and were ready on campus at 8am. We actually were out of the KOA at 6:50!! SO proud. There was time to stop for gas, and even coffee at a little independent coffee shop. We were on campus WAITING for the bookstore to open at 7:40 so Alan could get his lab notebook, and then we met our group.
There were two vans full of students, plus several cars other than our own, so we had quite a caravan. The ratio of pit stops to traveling wasn’t as good as we could do on our own, but the frequent stops allowed us to get to know my classmates. The drive to Glendive, MT was about 360 miles, so we got there in the afternoon. The class was called “Paleontology of the Hell Creek Formation,” which is a formation of Cretaceous sedimentary rock (formed from 65 to 75 million years ago) that runs from southern Alberta to Wyoming and is known for its rich dinosaur beds.
The class was focused around Makoshika State Park, which is the most windswept, desolate, seemingly barren place I’ve seen. When we drove in the front entrance, it was like arriving on the moon. Huge eroded sandstone buttes (cliffs) surrounded us, and a dried up, mud-lined riverbed ran next to the road. It was eerily beautiful though, with rock of different colors and fascinating eroded shapes. Makoshika (ma-KO-shi-ka) WAS desolate at the entrance. It looked something like I imagined Mars would look like. But once we got in … wow. Beautiful. There wasn’t as much plant life as other places we’ve been to, although for the first time I saw cactus growing in the wild.
Field camp was at the Lion’s Club camp, a typical summer camp with a main kitchen and scattered cabins. Getting to the camp wasn’t typical though. We followed the road to the end of the pavement, then continued on for another three miles down the one-way curvy gravel road that was literally barely a flat line between hilltops. I don’t mind mountain driving, but this was another story. The road was so steep that when we reached the top, we couldn’t see where the road went on the other side!
We chose to sleep in our tent rather than sharing a cabin with strangers. Except for Olli. He decided one evening that being indoors was better than having privacy. But when he wanted to search for mice and dust bunnies at 4am, he was ejected from his first sleepover. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
First night was dinner, getting to know people, and intro to the course. The people were all experienced teachers at various stages in the program and various stages of life. They were from San Francisco to Hawaii to Brazil to Argentina to Arizona… so basically we’ll have friends to visit almost anywhere in the country! It was fun hanging around with other science geeks who were interested in insect collecting, bird watching, astronomy, and geology. Anytime there was a natural phenomenon I didn’t understand, I could ask an expert! That first night, we took out our instruments and many classmates circled around. It wasn’t exactly a sing-along, as most of them were too self-conscious about their voices and/or didn’t know the music, but a couple people sang along on a couple of songs, and everyone was enthusiastic about the music. I think we were both a little shy because it felt so much like a concert, but it was fun.
There were two professors for the course, a paleontologist (dinosaur/fossil expert) and a geologist (rock expert). Between the two of them, they do a CSI interpretation of any fossil find. Jim says, “Based on the size of the particles in the sediment, we know this was a river at the time of fossil formation, and judging by the size of the layers it must have been at least a meter deep and moving 60 cm per second.” Then Frankie chimes in, “Based on the gnaw marks on the bones and the fact that the skeleton is only 55% complete, we know this was flowed downstream from where it was originally preyed upon.” Wow. There’s a beauty in watching a professional work, and there was no shortage of that this week!
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