Day 7 - Thursday, June 12, 1997
Dinosaur Digging near Shell, Wyoming

That morning we scrabbled to get down breakfast and everything packed before the paleontologist (Rene) came to pick us up at about 7 AM. In our haste, all we had time to do was take a quick photo of Jeremy (photo) in front of the Big Horn County Courthouse.

After the paleontologist arrived, we left the Basin, Wyoming campground and headed over to the Shell area. This particular site is on private land so we drove past a farm house and back to some bluffs to park the vehicles. The private land took advantage of a floodplain for growing crops and, given the recent rainfall, was very lush and green.

Now out of the vehicles, we had a brief introduction to what to see and the ground rules -- like no smashing up stuff behind roped-off areas with our hammers (photo). We grabbed our gear and proceeded to hike up to some erosionally incised hills where we stopped at a roped-off area (photo). Our group straggled upward along a narrow dirt footpath worn among the sage cactus. Gunslinger Bill stooped over and focused his lens on some flowering cactus (photo).

Finally, our slightly winded party crested a small pinnacle of redish rock and spyied down upon the secret dinosaur dig hidaway. There, a motley crew of sunburned and bearded men hoveled over various holes. Looking up and steading his shifty eyes upon us, a grizzled old guy looking like Humphrey Bogart quit digging and covered his booty with a piece of mud-caked canvas. Perhaps he suspected us to be banditos arriving to take his plunder. Now, as the late morning sun announced its intent to begin browning our hides, we gazed into the belly of the beast (photo to left).

Click here for additional pictures of the rib fest, rotund paleontologist for scale.