Simon's Travels: Trippin' with Maren

Over the years, I've driven through Kemmerer, Wyoming, any number of times on my way to or from the Denver area and never stopped, but the last time we traveled that way, the visitors' center at Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado was closed due to land movement─doors askew, long cracks in the walls─so we stopped at the Fossil Butte National Monument visitors' center instead just west of Kemmerer in the Fossil Lake area of the Green River formation. Sixty million years ago three lakes teemed with fish and plants that, upon dying, sunk to the bottom and were covered with mud in thin layers that over the millennia coalesced into shale and wound up as the top layers of buttes, now mostly owned by the state, which rents sites to entrepreneurs who in turn, for a price, let enthusiasts dig for fossils. Deb─one such enthusiast─asked Maren if she were interested, and suddenly we had two such enthusiasts.

Maren flew out Tuesday, June 20. We drove two days to Kemmerer and showed up at Ulrich's Fossil Gallery early one morning, boarded a four-wheel drive SUV, and climbed to the top of a nearby butte. The shale today retains the thin layers of the ancient annual mud deposits and one hunts fossils by carefully lifting a few layers at a time using hand sledges and flat pry bars, not unlike splitting plywood, to discover what lies between the layers.

With guidance from two of Ulrich's employees, Penny Lint and Mike Snively, in bright sun and an almost cloudless sky we worked at one end of the dig.

As each layer popped free, we found here and there carbonized remains of a herring-like fish, Knightia, and fossilized fish poop; for which we were not told the scientific term (coprolite─if you're interested).

As time was running out and the heat was getting to us, we turned up a four-foot wide layer and there lay: a 12-inch long Diplomystus. The prize of the day.

We loaded it and our other finds in the SUV and drove the perilous track back to the gallery where Mike trimmed the slabs with a chop saw and explained how to preserve them.

We drove back to Kemmerer where we spent the rest of the day exploring. Established in 1897, the town, population now about 2600, is home to James Cash "JC" Penney's "Mother Store"─which we did not explore─and a museum in a former LDS church, which we did explore. Kemmerer is paired with Diamondville, population 753, which was known during prohibition as "Little Chicago" for its many stills, some of which are now in the museum, lovely large copper stills, constructed by a local smith. Both towns have many no-longer-operating stores and houses that have seen better days along almost deserted streets. Exploration did not take long.

Next morning we headed north to Yellowstone, stopping in Jackson for locally made organic ice cream at Moo's Gourmet Ice Cream, yum, and for the requisite tourist photos.

We had made arrangements late, so our reservations were in West Yellowstone, Montana, but on the way we of course stopped at Old Faithful, for more tourist shots.

As we drove along the Madison river, we passed a flashing sign warning of buffalo ahead, and sure enough, a herd was ambling across the road, causing a "bison jam," replacing the "bear jams" of 30 years ago. The animals still had remnants of their winter coats.

The adults ignored the vehicles in the jam as we slowly worked through, but the calves were more curious.

The next morning we joined a park ranger for a guided 2 1/2 mile walk from Biscuit Basin to Mystic Falls. While we waited, an Osprey hovered in the wind over the Firehole River looking for a meal. It made several swoops, but never hit the water, so we did not see it catch a fish.

Our guide pointed out features of the hot pools at the Basin and led us on a narrow trail into the hills beyond until we ended at the Falls.

Some of the group continued up the trail for a longer circular trip back; Maren and I headed back the way we came, a shorter and easier walk, and took photos of resident marmots.

That afternoon, we walked the trail in Upper Geyser Basin past the numerous hot pools and spitting geysers to Morning Glory pool.

Tourists crowded around Old Faithful Inn and the trails nearby, reflected by the signs at the attractions lamenting vandalism.

Because items thrown in the pool restrict the flow of the 180-plus degree water, Morning Glory no longer has the pristine clarity it had just a few years ago, the water now clouded with algae that grows in lower temperatures.

By the end of the day, I had walked almost 8 miles at elevations from 6,000 to 7,000 feet, an exhausting feat; Maren had walked farther.

We headed north toward Mammoth, and found elk.

Surprisingly, the elk jams were not so extensive as the buffalo jams.

The herds look healthy, with calves still in spots, and the bull in velvet.

At Mammoth, we took Upper Terrace Drive, found parking despite the crowds, and walked out on the boardwalks overlooking the white calcium carbonate deposits.

We drove to Gardiner, Montana, for lunch and to see the Roosevelt Arch at the north entrance, which I had not seen since I was a kid driving to my summer job in the Montana woods.

Then we headed south on the east side, where, we had heard, there might be bears. There were. First we saw cars, pickups, RVs stopping, on the shoulders, in the road: a bear jam! Then we saw the mother and cubs on the hill above, not 20 yards from the pavement.

A few miles farther, we ran into our second bear jam of the day, for another mother,

this time with her cub up a tree.

A few miles farther, a third jam, this time for grizzlies. The first was about 50 yards down the slope from the road.

The second was about a thousand yards, a mere speck

until I pulled him in with my 450 mm lens.

People lined the road, vehicles stopped everywhere. One driver stopped in the road, jumped out to see better, and left his door open, blocking the other lane─not that anyone was moving. I could hardly blame them, these were my first grizzlies too, ever.