EPICENTER

Where is Fossil Point?

Two Sundays ago Jack, Maria, David Gordon (an Isuzu Trooper) and I went in search of Fossil Point, a Jurassic outcropping to the south.  We followed seemingly detailed directions - “just after Horse Bench Reservoir, take a left” “go through the mud wash” “look for the flat parking area to your left”. The first place we parked and explored was not, in fact Fossil Point, but the layer cake (Jack calls it lasagne) of striations was worth the trip. Jack climbed to the highest point while Maria and I meandered among the crumbling boulders. I sat on a wide sloping rock and drew. Jack returned and reported that he found the “flat parking area.” We climbed back in David Gordon and drove around the bend to see some fossils. “Explore the boulders. As a starting point there are some large vertebrae at ground level.” We did this, used some imagination…and we think we may have potentially found one gigantic vertebrae buried in a rock.  It’s hard to know because aren’t fossils rocks too? On the drive home we located some more prominent landmarks that we decided should be part of the directions. Like “Take a left at the Monster Toblerone Slice!”

Ali Osborn, Frontier Fellow