Fossil Hunting

One of the fun activities that Rough Creek Lodge offered was fossil hunting. I had no idea what that meant. Was it a legitimate activity, or was it something for the kids, where they could dig around in a sandbox to find planted "fossils"? This area is, after all, famous for its fossils! On our last day staying at the lodge, my wife and I decided to check it out. 

We had to go to the lodge recreation office to pick up a fossil hunting kit, and were issued a bag containing a small iron pickax, a pair of safety goggles, and a guide to the different fossils of the area. We were pointed in the direction of the fossil hunting area down the road and wished luck. We borrowed bikes from the lodge, and road them out through the sunny Texas morning to the fossil field.

Turns out, it's legitimate! There are just so many fossils here, that you can barely take a step without walking over at least one. We picked a spot out in the dusty fossil field, donned our safety goggles, and set to work exploring the area.

After just moments, we found our first fossil!

It was super fun! Even though there was hardly any challenge at all to finding fossils, I felt like a paleontologist. What makes it so interesting is that there's nothing faked or planted here. All of the fossils are real and are found naturally in the area. It's pretty amazing!

Here is a photographic collection of the fossils we discovered out in the fossil field. This part of Texas was once located along the shores of a great prehistoric ocean. Most of the fossils that we could find in this area belonged to ancient shellfish and the likes.