July 14 - Some Days

 Some days are better than others. 

Woke up in a beautiful hotel room in Page, Arizona. 

Gary hunted down decent coffee for breakfast, then we packed up the car with the hope that we’d be able to rent a jet ski or another kind of vessel at Lake Powell.

By 9:47 a.m., we joined the rich and famous on the Lake Powell Marina on a pontoon boat. The boat was so stinking posh that it had a built-in cooler for the captain’s water bottle and it had Bluetooth to sync the giant speakers with a cellphone to play fave tunes. 

Gary is a natural pirate captain. I now have three top nature experiences: Any day at Bryce Canyon, Lower Antelope Canyon, and Lake Powell by boat. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. (I actually crossed a state border by boat!)

By the time we filled up the gas at the main marina, the air was so hot I could not catch the melting of the lime popsicle fast enough before the tart drops flew into the wind onto my hands and arms and over the boat railing. It was the best-tasting popsicle ever, still. Gosh, was I ever parched?

After the lake adventure, we went back to get another patch for Lake Powell. I get what the thing with the lake is now, so one patch simply won’t do.

Gary was wind and sand burned but indulged my dino obsession by stopping at Big Waters Visitor Center on the way back to Bryce anyway. I had read about this center when we were planning our dino trek in Salt Lake City and again when planning this southern Utah staycation. The focus seemed to be on the Kaiparowits Formation and dinosaurs, which are at the core of my obsession.

The sandstone building was beautiful with new, well-designed displays and iron sculptures outside. It was too hot to linger, though, so we headed inside rather swiftly. A woman with intensely blue eyes met my gaze as soon as we got in the door. We now know that her name is Jennifer. I approached her with my new line, “Hey, I’m a tour guide at Bryce Canyon. We are looking to expand our script to include more information on dinosaurs. Do you have any suggestions for what I should read?”

A lot happened after that.

Magical things.

To begin answering my question, Jennifer took me to the library part of the visitor center’s store. She took Christa Sadler’s awesome book, Where Dinosaurs Roamed, off the shelf. When I told her that I already own the book we commenced to commiserate about what we liked about the book and its author the way only true fans can. Since this was already a winning book, Jennifer handed me one of the two unopened copies of Dinosaurs of Utah by Frank DeCourten instead. I cannot wait to sink my teeth into this technical treatise on far out creatures who roamed close.

The one and only dinosaur I mention on my tour is the Kosmoceratops, or Ornate Horned Face. If you have read my blog, this is old news. What I usually don’t mention in either my blog or on my tour is the Latin name for my favorite dino. They are called Kosmoceratops richardsoni after Scott Richardson, the geologist turned bone prospector who found the species in Escalante – Grand Staircase of which Bryce is the highest step.

As part of her answer, the park ranger mentioned that “Scott” had just gone home to pack because he is scheduled to participate in the Geology Festival at Bryce Canyon this weekend. She gave me his personal business card and said, “He might not answer email while he is working, but you’ll surely see him this weekend anyway.” Yeah, okay, I’ll just go back to Bryce and ask one of the coolest peeps on earth about the coolest dinos on earth since he’ll spend the weekend in the ‘hood. WHAT?!

UPDATE:

Me and Scott Richardson!

Meanwhile, Gary had taken in the dino display in the center. The whole thing was about local dinos with focus on Kosmos; another cool dino called plesiosaur which was found in Tropic Shale (our grocery store out here is in Tropic!); and Nothronychus graffami. As Gary and I checked the display of the fossils by the counter, the park ranger came around and pointed at what I was taking photos of. Pointing at the sloth-like Nothronychus dino, she said, “That one is named after my father. He found the bones only a couple of miles from here.” WHAT?!

By the time Gary and I had enjoyed the Kosmo exhibit and walked up to the cashier with cool merch, Jennifer had looked up the agenda for the Bryce Canyon Geology Festival. Unbelievably, Christa Sadler, the author of our fave dino book, is the speaker at the North Campground on Saturday night. WHAT?!

But, there is more.

There is one more dino I mention on my tour, but only if the guests are worthy. Mabry, one of the co-owners of the company I work for, has found part of a fossil of a Utahraptor. Raptors are those dinos that chase people in Jurassic Park and scare them by tapping their huge, sharp middle claw. This fossil piece has been reported to the proper authorities so Mabry is able to keep it here and show it to our guests, no problem. Earlier this summer, Mabry was in contact with a paleontologist name Tut Tran who dug for dinos in the Bryce area last year. Tut showed interest in checking where Mabry found his fossil to see if there may be more dino body parts strewn about. In the excitement, Mabry said I could come with them…and that I can write the dino information for the company’s guidebook. Well, Mabry’s connection with Tut fizzled, so I have yet to go out with them for bone prospecting. I made peace with the possibility of only getting paid to write about dinos so more people can get obsessed rather than getting the whole experience.

Before we left the Center this afternoon, Jennifer read the name of the speaker for tomorrow night: Tut Tran. WHAT?!