Dinosaur Bones and Outlaws!

I've had a bit of a chance to hike around the Morrison Formation near Cleveland-Lloyd.  The exposure is very widespread.  It is amazing to see dinosaur bones popping out of the rocks!  I think I am beginning to recognize what they look like.  Here is a picture of a sauropod rib bone in a Morrison sandstone layer. 

The Morrison Formation, deposited about 147 million years ago, during the Jurassic is known for two things: dinosaurs and uranium deposits.  Sometimes the two are simultaneous -- the dinosaur bones are the uranium deposit!!  This is because during the process of fossilization, the bones get replaced by uranium in the groundwater fluxing through.  About two months ago, not far from here, a dinosaur skeleton was found.  They found it by using a Geiger counter!  Wild stuff.

PDP and I took a trip to Canyonlands National Park last weekend.  On the way there, we passed a Utah State Park called "Dead Horse State Park".  This park has a horrendous background story where several dozens of horses, corralled out on a point in the park and forgotten, jumped several thousand feet to their death.  The drop-off provided the only source of water --- the Colorado River -- at the bottom of the canyon.  Yikes!  But this park is famous for another reason -- Thelma and Louise was filmed here!!  For those of us old enough to remember the scene where they drive off the rim of the canyon, here is a picture of Shafer Road where the scene was filmed.  Of course in taking the picture, I am standing on a cliff about 2000 feet above the road.  The road is also on a cliff several hundred feet above the river.  The scale is hard to imagine in the picture.

That's all for now!   I'm off to the quarry!