Monday, April 6, 2020

Moenave, AZ Dinosaur Tracks

[The surprise discovery of Sunday, April 5 being "National Geologist Day" has changed my plans for this week.  That being the case, I am reposting modified Facebook posts - from April 5th - about some of "my favorites" including photos, fossils, rocks, minerals, memories, and quests.]

Including the period of time of my elementary-school years, when I had a kid's interest in dinosaurs, shiny minerals, fossils, and other things on the ground, I have had an interest in "things geology" for 50+ years.  [My Dad and Mom both enjoyed being outdoors doing gardening and roaming around.]  Indeed, my high school Senior Year Geology course began in the Fall of 1971 and finished in the Spring of 1972.


This post is about a quest and an answer that were 35 years apart.  In the Summer of 1980, my Mom and Dad took a Western vacation (which turned out to be their final vacation together, as my Dad passed away in late November 1980). 

After my Dad's passing, I was looking at 35 mm slides from the trip. Amongst the numerous slides from that vacation were some slides of dinosaur tracks, but they weren't labeled, so I had no idea of their locality. (And I didn't want to bother my Mom about it.)

Some 35 years later (mid-2015), on the return trip to Atlanta after visiting my daughter's family in Phoenix (traveling with a friend) our plans included going to Monument Valley and the Four Corners Monument.  Prior to leaving Phoenix, I did a quick computer search to aid in finding dinosaur tracks near Tuba City that someone had mentioned to me.  

As soon as I got out of the car, began to wander the site (with a Navajo guide), and then commenced taking photographs of the tracks in the Jurassic Moenave Formation, my long-awaited answer arrived (late-1980 - mid-2015)!  These were the tracks my Mom and Dad had visited in 1980! 
 Figure 1.
 Figure 2.
Figure 3.
They were also the first dino tracks I had ever seen and touched.  In 1979, I had a Summer job south of Farmington, New Mexico as part of a Fossil Recovery Project, prior to the opening of an open-pit coal mine.  I got paid to look for and collect dinosaur bones, but the setting wasn't right for track preservation in the Bisti Badlands.  Part 2 of my "farewell to the 40th anniversary of the best summer job - ever" - is here, from last November.

[I wasn't even thinking about my Dad's 35 mm slides until I looked at the first photo (Figure 1.) in the camera viewfinder and the thought suddenly came to me.]  

What a rush!

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