December in the Badlands🦖

Montana morning sky.....view out the back door with coffee in hand ready for another adventure

Just gorgeous...check out that moon in the clouds. Our big skies have amazing views.

It's a dream to be out hiking the Badlands in December. Some years it's -25° in the morning but last week it was 25° and 59° by mid day! It was a Montana heatwave and we were not passing up the chance to get out for the day!

On the road....on the way to the office 🦖

This group of horses and our little buddy the burrow are sometimes an early morning or late afternoon traffic jam but today they are far off the dirt county road.

This picture was one of those days last summer

A.M. traffic

South Eastern Montana morning traffic at a stand still.....

Same summer day in the afternoon....what is that ahead in the road?

Our little buddy the burrow

This traffic isn't moving

Montana detour.....

We drove around our buddy he didn't move an inch and I had spotted him far into the distance. We had to be a cloud of orange dust barreling down on him but he didn't mind us at all. Even posed for glamour shots!

Summer of 2022...July

Back to December and our adventure...

Another dark looking December morning looking into the sun

Exploded dinosaur bone fragments

Hiking around exploring before we start digging

Blue Skies are opening up

Cloudy skies looking East

aahhh...what do we have here!🦖

Triceratops Occipital Condyle

The occipital condyle is the ball at the farthest back part of the skull that attaches to the vertebrae column. The ball/condyle gives the head a wide range of motion.

Triceratops dinosaur fossils usually frill (head shield fragments) are commonly found when we are out hiking the Badlands. (on buttes that are fossil rich) But the excitement and the awe of discovery is never common.

This condyle was the highlight to our hike. The day before out in the Badlands Erik discovered a juvenile Triceratops horn tip on high. It was a Triceratops rich week.

I'll get the gate.....new adventures await 🦖

Sunset off of 12 mile Dam Road