Finding Dinosaurs!

 One of Tim's best childhood memories is going out to the desert with his dad and rockhounding. He was taken all over Utah to find different minerals and rocks that he could keep as souveniers. He was really excited to bring his kids along for the ride. Most of our kids are huge rockhounders like their daddy. They love the desert and get excited when we take them out on adventures.

 In June of 2013, Tim and I decided to recreate this experience for our nieces and nephews. We organized a rockhounding excursion and invited all of our brothers and sisters to bring their families. We got a really good response and was able to plan an epic trip!

We chose the place and the rocks we were going to look for. Tim thought it would be fun to show everyone where they could find dinosaur bones. He found a dinosaur when he was younger, and thought the kids would find this absolutely amazing! We set up the camp, let everyone know where we were, and thus the adventure began.

It was a great family reunion! The kids were excited to see their cousins. They helped set up camp, explored the area and got everyone settled in. After the first night of camp songs and smores, everyone had a difficult time sleeping because of the excitement of looking for dinosaur bones.

The first morning, Tim loaded most of the kids in our Suburban, Zina (my best friend) loaded a group in her truck and off they went into the desert to find themselves a dinosaur. Now, if you know anything about Tim, you know that the desert speaks to him. He drives until it says stop and digs where the desert tells him to dig. He drove to an area and told everyone that this is where they would find something. He explained that dinosaur bones are not white, like you would think, but more purplish red or black.

Everyone started searching. It wasn't very long until my nephew Justin and my sister Aimee thought they might have stumbled onto something. Tim came over to verify...sure enough! They had found a dinosaur bone. Tim asked all the kids to back up, because he didn't want them to ruin the site. He carefully started digging around it. What we soon discovered, is that this was a full blown dinosaur vertebre! They hadn't just found bones, they found a full dinosaur!!!!

Everyone was so excited! Tim taught the older kids how to carefully dig around the bones to prevent damage. He dug far enough to verify the dinosaur, then he called the state paleontologist to find out what to do next.

The story got picked up by the local news station and everyone got to be on TV. (Click here to watch the news cast) The dinosaur that we found, was a juvenile cephelapod. I can't remember what the full name of it was, but I know it was a long neck. I took the kids to the Museum of Natural History shortly afterwards to show them which dinosaur it was. (Not that ours got put there, just that they had the type on display.)

Now, unfortunately, being on the news and having all this excitement, put Tim in a sad predicament. He had federal officers come and arrest him. Apparently, it is illegal to gather dinosaur bones and a fragment of one was shown on TV, so they suspected that we gathered a lot of them. They confiscated all the small fragments that were found in the wash, and Tim had to go to court.

Fortunately, the judge decided that there was no malice and dismissed the case. It was really scary to think that Tim would have to go to jail because of our desire to share our adventure with the world. Thankfully, everything turned out okay.

We still rockhound, and have found several more dinosaurs with our little family, including a T-rex. Ara has found a raptor tooth and Tim has found a T-rex claw. We don't gather anymore, just take pictures, but it's sad that the kids can't keep their little momentums. Rockhounding is a dying art, but if you're ever in the area or interested to see what we found, let me know. We might be able to arrange a rockhounding excursion for you!