November Cretaceous Hike

Our morning sunrise in Montana never disappoints us as we head out of town excited for the possibilities of today’s hike.

Oh deer! Orange skies turn to shades of faint pink, as I capture this deer running thru the countryside.

The cottonwood trees have lost all their leaves and it looks like late fall on the prairie. Winter is approaching.

Our sun in the winter is low in the sky and always appears larger. There is cloud coverage this morning making it look like a dark fall morning.

Underneath all of the massive cloud coverage there is a big blue sky just waiting to show off. A glimpse of blue is seen on the horizon.

I see a bird in the distance sitting on a rock Johnny. The wildlife is scarce this morning. It is hunting season in Montana. And everything that is usual is unusual during this month.

We are excited to get hiking today. We have not been on this ranch in many years. I see dinosaur bone fragments everywhere as we get our backpacks ready for hiking.

In a few short steps I discover a Struthiomimus toe!

There are dinosaur bone fragments scattered everywhere on these low lying buttes.

This is a beautiful piece of Triceratops frill.

Next I find a vertebra!

The first couple of hills were amazing. I found several more vertebrae.

We hike a short distance (for us) to the next set of buttes that Erik is anxious to check out.

The sun is now bright and the morning clouds have disappeared. The sun is low and at an odd angle this morning making it difficult to capture this area with the glare.

There was a beautiful group of trees and a natural water stream out of nowhere. Next time in the spring, I will capture it’s beauty. But at this moment we are hiking like bighorn mountain goats with a purpose.

Past the beautiful scene I start seeing dinosaur bone fragments everywhere. This vertebra has had one too many million years of exposure and it is deteriorated.

I take my backpack off to collect the large dinosaur bone pieces. This is one of the vertebrae I found from the first set of hills.

This is the end of an Edmontosaurus metatarsal.

We hike onward to the last area we are exploring for our trip. Our days in the fall leading up to winter are much shorter due to lack of daylight. We have to remain mindful of the time so we can get back to town before dark.

It is a stunning area of amazing views, but we only see smaller chips and fragments of dinosaur bones and nothing whole and discernible. Although we enjoy exploring and I photograph the area.

We hike back on the dry barren grassland. It was a lush green spring, but triple digits from endless long summer days look like it never rained at all.

I’ll get the gate… hopefully a few more adventures for this year await!

The county road twists and turns through this stretch of our journey homeward with low lying buttes all around.

I photograph another lonely bird. The hunters have all the wildlife looking very scarce.

We had a fun short hike. It’s was a blast of excitement seeing dinosaur bone pieces scattered all over the buttes. Especially discovering a toe in minutes and several weather worn vertebrae.