Today we visited a new-to-us state park. We started in the visitor's center, which the kids loved. The visitor's center had lots of displays and hands-on activities. Danielle was most fascinated, though, by the aquarium full of monarch butterfly caterpillars. There were several caterpillars and three emerald green chrysalises. Several more caterpillars were hanging from the mesh ceiling, forming the "j" shape and preparing for their metamorphosis. They are beautiful caterpillars. The ranger took us outside and showed us where and how to find the caterpillars. They prefer milkweed, which gives them a bitter taste & makes them taste bad to predators. Now that we know what to look for, Danielle and I are going to spend some time hunting for caterpillars while Tyler's in school this week. She's very excited.
After we finished at the visitor's center, we drove over to a spillway where we could explore for fossils. The fossils there are over 400 million years old (from the Ordovician Period, if you care). Tyler was astounded by how old they were - even older than the dinosaurs! And it wasn't like we had to try really hard to find them. They were everywhere! Tyler thoroughly enjoyed this part of our trip and talked about it the rest of the day. We found lots of very interesting fossils. We got a permit at the visitor's center, so we were allowed to take some fossils home with us. The kids brought their buckets and filled them up 
with their treasures. My favorite piece contains several different types of fossils and even has a couple geodes on it (top right & bottom left on the side). We found brachiopods, bryozoans, gastropods, cephalopods, crinoids, and horn coral. We didn't see any trilobites. These are all fossils of sea creatures since this area was all under water millions of years ago. I know this is much more than most of you care to know, and if you bothered to click on the link above, you probably closed the page as quickly as you opened it . We all found it very interesting, though.
After we collected our prehistoric treasures, we drove over to the gorge and had a picnic. After our picnic we threw our lines in for awhile. We didn't catch anything, but we enjoyed watching a school of fish about a foot off the shore just in front of us. They weren't interested in anything we had and splashed around in the shallows most of the time we were there. (If you look closely at the picture you can see 4 fish.)
After awhile we moved to the lake and tried fishing there. We didn't have any luck there, either, but we did have some entertainment. Tyler spotted a water snake about 2 feet out from shore, directly across from him. After that, we started watching for them and saw several of them while we were sitting there. All of them were pretty close but still in the water. While we were fishing, Danielle was combing through the rocks on shore, looking for more fossils (which she found but didn't keep). Suddenly she screeched, ran back to her chair, and pulled her legs up off the ground. Apparently she rolled over a rock and found a large spider and a curled up water snake. I'm not sure which one scared her 
more. Ron bravely moved the rock so we could all see the snake up close. It was very little and slithered away into the water when we "urged" (poked) him. It was actually pretty cool.
Before we left we let the kids try fishing at a stocked pond for kids under 15. The ranger all but guaranteed the kids would catch something there...but they didn't. It was fun anyway. While Ron packed away our gear, the kids and I searched the weeds for caterpillars. We didn't have any luck with that, either, but we had fun looking at all the different insects and butterflies.
After we finished at the visitor's center, we drove over to a spillway where we could explore for fossils. The fossils there are over 400 million years old (from the Ordovician Period, if you care). Tyler was astounded by how old they were - even older than the dinosaurs! And it wasn't like we had to try really hard to find them. They were everywhere! Tyler thoroughly enjoyed this part of our trip and talked about it the rest of the day. We found lots of very interesting fossils. We got a permit at the visitor's center, so we were allowed to take some fossils home with us. The kids brought their buckets and filled them up 
with their treasures. My favorite piece contains several different types of fossils and even has a couple geodes on it (top right & bottom left on the side). We found brachiopods, bryozoans, gastropods, cephalopods, crinoids, and horn coral. We didn't see any trilobites. These are all fossils of sea creatures since this area was all under water millions of years ago. I know this is much more than most of you care to know, and if you bothered to click on the link above, you probably closed the page as quickly as you opened it . We all found it very interesting, though.
After we collected our prehistoric treasures, we drove over to the gorge and had a picnic. After our picnic we threw our lines in for awhile. We didn't catch anything, but we enjoyed watching a school of fish about a foot off the shore just in front of us. They weren't interested in anything we had and splashed around in the shallows most of the time we were there. (If you look closely at the picture you can see 4 fish.)
After awhile we moved to the lake and tried fishing there. We didn't have any luck there, either, but we did have some entertainment. Tyler spotted a water snake about 2 feet out from shore, directly across from him. After that, we started watching for them and saw several of them while we were sitting there. All of them were pretty close but still in the water. While we were fishing, Danielle was combing through the rocks on shore, looking for more fossils (which she found but didn't keep). Suddenly she screeched, ran back to her chair, and pulled her legs up off the ground. Apparently she rolled over a rock and found a large spider and a curled up water snake. I'm not sure which one scared her 
more. Ron bravely moved the rock so we could all see the snake up close. It was very little and slithered away into the water when we "urged" (poked) him. It was actually pretty cool.
Before we left we let the kids try fishing at a stocked pond for kids under 15. The ranger all but guaranteed the kids would catch something there...but they didn't. It was fun anyway. While Ron packed away our gear, the kids and I searched the weeds for caterpillars. We didn't have any luck with that, either, but we had fun looking at all the different insects and butterflies.When we got home the kids rinsed off all their fossils and are just waiting to show them to someone new. Tyler's been out of bed about 10 times tonight to ask different questions about the time period our fossils are from, and Danielle can't stop talking about the snake she found. It was a great day!
1 comment:
Boy that mind of his just doesn't shut off does it? What a day. Fun!
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