When we first arrived in the area of the agate fossil beds we thought we were going to find some great rockhounding. Oops. The name “Agate” comes from the Agate Springs Ranch which was owned by James and Kate Cook. They had bought the ranch in 1887 and with in a few years discovered some petrified remains.
In 1892 the University of Nebraska explored the Devil’s Corkscrew at Agate, which is the fossilized burrows of a Palaeocastor, which is basically a dry-land beaver. We didn’t go to see that feature. In 1904 the Carnegie Museum discovered the bone bed, which we are on our way to, now. Scientists from Yale , the American Museum of Natural History and other explored this area for many years.
Now that we know why we are here—at first glance I thought this was a picture of the trail we were going to be taking. From what we can see of the paved trail leading 2.7 miles into the plains this is what it looks like. On second glance, it is a warning about rattle snakes. Ooohhhh.
There are supposed to be 12 different kinds of snakes in this area. I would like to see some from a distance, of course. Wow, this feels like a long, slow-uphill walk. Oh, that’s because it is. We stop at all the rest areas to just sit and listen and look around. Hey! There we are!
We are still walking. Still stopping. There is a song bird that is serenading us on our walk but I can’t seem to get a look at it. I think there is too much grass. As we approach the fossil beds it becoming more rocky. And there the little guy is, sitting on one of the rocks, a horned lark. From this angle his horns are hard to see.
We’ve arrived at the fossil beds and we are not impressed. We really thought there would be more fossils or at least bone like structures sticking out of the rock. The plaque says there may be bones lying around and that if we pick them up to examine them we should put them back where we found them.
After some careful looking we find some bones.
We can tell they are bones by the porous structure of the interior, weight, and color as compared to the surrounding rocks. There is a perfect way to test to see if they are bone, but I’m not doing it. You lick the specimen. Even smoothly polished, your tongue will stick to the rock. it feels similar to a cat’s tongue on your skin when they lick you.
It is finally starting to warm up. When we started this hike we were both in jackets and bracing against the breeze. The walk is becoming much more pleasant now.
There is another rock formation that is supposed to have fossilized tracks. We take the dirt path around it but we are not seeing any tracks.
We did however find another horny toad (short-horned lizard). They are so cute and angry all at the same time.
There are lots of unfamiliar flowers along our journey and John is such a dear to stop and take pictures of all of them for me.
Oh my gosh! Our first snake siting. It is a baby prairie rattler. Babies are cute no matter what species.
Thank goodness for zoom lens and photo editing software. We are able to get a closeup look without having to get close up.
How exciting, now I want to see more. We are almost back to the Jeep and having seen anymore. But dang, these horny toads are everywhere. Now this guy looks more brown than the other one we saw. They must be able to change their color or something.
Just when we think we have seen all the snakes we are going to John see’s one sticking its head out of its hole about six or seven inches. It sees us and pops back down. We wait and wait but he isn’t coming out again anytime soon. We keep walking and see two more slithering through the grass. One stops just long enough for John to get a picture. It’s a smooth green snake. Cool, we saw two different species!
This is our last day here. Tomorrow, Tuesday, we are heading for Toad Stool in the northern most part of the state.
