Two years ago today we took a hike into Opal Canyon. Located
in Red Rock State Park about 35 minutes north of where we lived in Lancaster,
Calif., the canyon is most famous for its opal gems, but three sites also have
been known to yield 7-million- to 12-million-year-old fossils.
We went opal hunting but kept our eyes out for fossils as
well. You enjoyed tapping away at the shale with my geologist’s hammer as we
looked for some cool finds.
And we did find some stuff! One was a fossilized impressions
of tiny leafs and an opalized bone fragment in a chunk of shale. I also found a
partially opalized bone fragment from a piece of shale; it looks vaguely like a
tooth. I still have the fossils and gems and will show them to you one day!
