We are on day 2 of our December trip. Fairly modest miles planned for this trip before we take a longer trip in Feb/Mar. For this trip we'll head down through central Texas all the way to the Gulf Coast. Then we'll run along the coast all the way to my hometown of New Orleans, LA (unincorporated Gretna, LA to be exact).
Our first stop is Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose, TX. Just a mere ~105 million years ago, some sauropods (big vegetarians) and theropods (the bitey kind) strolled along an ancient shoreline, leaving their footprints in the mud. The footprints became buried, compressed, and fossilized. Then, the Paluxy River exposed those long buried footprints. Yesterday we arrived and did a nice 5.4-mile hike in the amazing 75 degree December 1st weather.
Today, I began with a 3-mile run/walk to find Elena's phone. Last night she couldn't find it, so we used the "find my phone" feature, and the last known location was on the trail we had hiked. I got up early and found it on the bench where we had taken a break at a scenic overlook. Later, we went searching for the dinosaur footprints. There are several sites in the river with distinct footprint tracks. We even put on our water shoes and waded knee-deep in the very cold, but clear water.
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| Both saurapod and therapod tracks |
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| My shoe in a theropod track |
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| Those vegetarian sauropods had large feet |
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| Bebop studying the dino footprints |
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| Sitting on the rocks in the Paluxy river |
I'll close with this Far Side dinosaur classic.
- Paul
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