We drove an hour north of Scotts Bluff to the Agate Fossil beds National Monument. At the entrance to the park there is a hiking trail, Daemonelix Trail, out to some stone outcroppings which contained fossilized rodent dens that spiral down from what was then (21 Million Years ago) surface level upwards of 10 feet to a den. These are called devils corkscrews. We then went to the visitor center, collected our passport stamp (#5) and decided to do the other trail in the park, Fossil Hills Trail, before it got really hot. We hiked up to University Hill and Carnegie Hill where the major fossil beds were excavated between 1892 and 1928. The excavations at these sites were water holes that slowly dried up and thousands of animals died on the shores, which produced the fossil beds. The last major excavation in the park was in 1986. We could not see any fossils or any real indication of the previous excavations. It was a rather disappointing hike. Back at the visitor center I talked with the park ranger and she said that they have a paleontologist that comes out once or twice a year to check if erosion has uncovered any fossils. If there are, the evaluate them to see if they are something new or not. If not, they put a preservative on them and rebury them. Apparently there has not been anything new since 1986. We went through the museum in the visitor center before heading back to Gerling. Leslie has decided that driving in Nebraska is boring, it has eight legged biting flies, and a lot of ants. Tomorrow we drive to Custer South Dakota.
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| Fossilized Rodent Burrow |
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| Fossils on exhibit in the visitor center |
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