Reptile Gardens

We got a back stage tour of Reptile Gardens in South Dakota because we
knew a former employee. They let us hold a baby alligator and a
Burmese Python.

Mount Rushmore

Tornado Warning #3

Our last night in Hill City we were met with another tornado warning
as two huge storms collided overhead dropping heavy rain and hail.
Later on we received a call from a friend still at the Quarry that the
storm had hit there too and unleashed spiked, baseball size that
shattered nearly every car windshield and trapped the diggers for a
least forty eight hours. We got out just in time.

Mashed Potato Mountain

Austin couldn't resist...

Devils Tower

Final Day

Here are Austin, Greg and Brandon at Quarry A on the final day of the
dig. It was extremely hot and humid without any wind. Apparently the
Waugh Quarry is a rarity for fossil hunting because it is in a forest
while most are out in the desert with high winds and dangerously
elevated temperatures.

Counting Lightning

Last night a massive thunderstorm rolled in around 3am completely by
surprise. We were all woken up by a lightning strike that hit a nearby
tree followed by deafening thunder that literally shook the ground
like an earthquake. None of us slept very much as the driving rain and
wind lasted for several hours.

Baby Rattlesnake

We caught a baby rattlesnake in camp and yes, that camera phone on the
left side is our friend Shota from Japan getting way too close.

Ponderosa Bar & Grill

We decided to go into Hulett to try the local food and ended up
getting half pound bison burgers and then playing purple rain with
Brandon, another Pixarian, along with Holly and Amar, graduate
paleontology students from the UK.

Hunting Area

I found another nearly complete Allosaur tooth. The common wisdom is
that this quarry was a sauropod feeding area near a river where a pack
of Allosaurs used to hunt. Hence all the broken teeth and dead
sauropods.

Stegosaurus Vertebrate

Austin and I found a vertibrate after the bulldozer scraping across
the ground made a PING! sound. It took us over an hour to free it and
clean it.

Big Tooth

This tooth is huge, probably four inches or so and we think from a
Megalosaurus. I'm going to be digging in that area so hopefully I find
some more. Today was lackluster; we dug for nine hours and all we had
to show for it was a broken tooth, a chipped claw, and several bone
fragments. At least it was only eighty today.

A River Runs Through Hulett

Teeth and Claws

This is A Quarry where all the lead paleontologists work. Those white
flags represent either a tooth or a claw.

Tools

Thunderstorm Sunset

Brer Rabbit Molasses

Found in the Hulett general store. I shoulda bought some...

Camp from the Hill

Digging

I found a pile of bones that turned red due to oxidation and were
falling apart. When this happens the bones are often abandoned because
they are too brittle. Luckily, after using a bulldozer we found a
whole new area to dig with giant vertibrates.

Quarry View from the Top

Allosaurus tooth

F Quarry

This is where we're looking for Barosauus, Camarosaurus, Brachiosaurus
or other larger dinosaurs. We just started uncovering the shoulders
and neck.

Tents

Campsite

Greg, Austin, Chuck and I set up camp in a small clearing between a
group of trees about a quarter mile from the Quarry. We were lucky
enough to be able to drive our cars right up to the campsite.

Home Base

This is our main camp complete with utility truck, solar panels,
propane grill, mess hall, and satelite phone.

The Beer Cave

Someone had the brilliant idea of digging into the mountainside to
create a small cave where beer and other important items could be kept
cool. It works. I make sure to test it every night.

First Day

Our job was to clear a hillside to uncover the bones of a Camarosaurus
they found last year. First with shovels, then digging knives, then
exacto blades, and finally brushes. It took until lunch just to get
down to the bone then we spent the rest of the afternoon doing the
tedious work of cleaning off the fossils and prepping them for
removal. We had to end early when a thunderstorm dropped nickel sized
hail on us.

A Paleontologist's Shadow

The Waugh Quarry

Our view of the Black Hills forest from camp. Yes, that is a
thunderstorm on the horizon.

A Close Encounter with Devils Tower

We listened to the Close Encounters theme the entire time the tower
was in view.

Black Hills Museum

This is an amazing museum in Hill City run by the institute with every
type of dinosaur you could imagine.

Lesley the Triceratops

Here's Austin with the skull of an old triceratops. Some of the other
diggers on our team are digitally scanning these fossils so that they
can make 3d printable models.

Stan the T-Rex

At Rex Hall, BHI's personal museum we saw this in progress skeleton of
an adult T-Rex named "Stan." To make money, the institute sells cast
models of their skeletons for use in museums. This is their 44th copy,
the most of any Rex in the world.

Thunderstorms on the Horizon

Our first glimpse of a massive thunderstorm. Several are headed our
way later this week.

Rapid City

Here's Austin and I showing off our newly minted "T-Rex Gang Signs."
Hats and aviators are required of course. We then drove to Hill City
through the beautiful Black Hills forest past Mount Rushmore and the
new Crazy Horse monument which is currently under construction.

Six Foot Turkeys

For the next two weeks, I will be a paleontologist.

I love dinosaurs; it has been my life's dream to go on a dig and as luck would have it I chanced upon this excursion with the help of friends and fellow dino-thusiasts Austin Madison (my doppelganger) and Greg Dykstra, both of whom are also former Pixar co-workers of mine. Months and months ago, Austin contacted me about the Waugh Quarry Dig put together by the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research and I feverishly jumped on the opportunity to excavate the fossilized remains of my favorite childhood monsters. And so, come tomorrow, pack packed, I'm leaving.

July 6: Fly to Rapid City, South Dakota. Meet up with Pixar gang. Drive to Hill City, South Dakota (these names remind me of Waterfall City from "Dinotopia")

July 7: Spend day at Black Hills Geological Institute in Hill City. Learn about paleontology. Drive to Waugh Quarry (where the dinosaur bones are hiding) near Hulett, Wyoming which is just north of Devil's Tower (of Close Encounters fame) in the Black Hills forest.

July 8-12: Dig up dinosaur bones. Make references to Jurassic Park.

July 13: Leave dig site. Visit Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore, and several dinosaur themed (not Jurassic) parks in South Dakota.

July 14: Fly home.

July 15: Old-Fashioned Slideshow

In honor of Roy Chapman Andrews, the real life inspiration for Indiana Jones, and as an added level of adventure, I have brought only period appropriate clothing and the following necessary items for such a dangerous outing: fedora, aviator sunglasses, smoking pipe, knife, irish whistle, flask of whiskey, flares and a journal (rifle to be procured in Wyoming).

I love you all.