The Rattlesnakes are Awake

My son Patrick and I went out for a brief tour of Corral Bluffs this afternoon. I knew it was about the right time, and my hunch was confirmed when Patrick said, "Oh, here's a snake skin or a dead snake, or, wait a minute..." I had stepped on a baby rattlesnake about 10 inches long. It looked rather squished, but after poking it with a stick we found out that it seemed to be fine. A short way away I found several fossil bones, so the new locality name is, naturally, "Squished Rattler." I don't know for sure what the bones are, but my first guess is crocodile. They don't quite look turtlish. The Bluffs are looking beautiful. Green leaves are beginning to appear. I decided I am Lewis and/or Clark, describing a new land. So I am creating names for every place. The spot I named today is Windswept Hollow. It's at the top of a bluff, with views of Pikes Peak and the Sangres and beautiful pinnacles and bowls of sandstone.

Red Rock Canyon Dinosaur Track

On October 31 I was in Red Rock Canyon with two members of WIPS (Western Interior Paleontological Society). We were attempting to make molds and casts of dino tracks and other fossils found in the outcrops that can't be collected. Happily, we were met by a most friendly park ranger, who drove us near the outcrop, allowing us to avoid carrying the 12 foot ladder an extra mile. We still, however, had to carry the ladder up the steep hogback, through cactus and talus. We didn't have much luck with the casting of the tracks. The iguanodon track was too deep and the foam casting material broke into about 40 pieces! We got a nice cast of the ankylosaur track, but (unknown to my wonderful WIPS friends) as soon as I got home to admire the cast, my cat jumped on top of the foam, leaving four well-formed cat tracks on top of the ankylosaur track.

All was not lost, though! As we were leaving the outcrop, one fellow fossil lover looked down in a pile of talus, left from when Red Rock Canyon was a quarry, and saw laying there a dinosaur track cast that had fallen off of its original outcrop. What an exciting find. I can only think that the quarry men tossed it there as they were removing the preferred sections of rock, not realizing what it was. I have stepped over that same spot, not noticing the track, for over two years!

The best fossils collected from Red Rock Canyon will be displayed at the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum beginning later this month. Hopefully the ankylosaur track will be among those fossils!