You Old Fossil

 These first two images are on a layer in the Quarry site at Dinosaur National Monument which is preserved for visitors inside a building.  These bones are about 150 million years old -  farther back in time from the K-T boundary when the Dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago than the K-T boundary is from us today.  The bones collected in this layer most likely after dying elsewhere and being washed downstream before collecting in a common area over millions of years.  both images were taken with my 24mm lens and an exposure of 1/80 seconds at f/4, ISO 400

This image finally gives you some scale for the size of the bones - notice the gentleman and his son at the bottom right of the layer of bones visible here.  They are generally quite large.  This layer extended in all 4 directions, left, right, up and down.  It was excavated starting in about 1910 by Earl Douglass from the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.  They removed huge layers of rock and dirt to get to the layers that contained the dinosaur bone fossils like these.

Another pair of views of the wall of dinosaurs - you can see how small we humans are in the 2nd view.  The last 3 images were all taken with my 24mm lens and an exposure of 1/60 seconds at f/4, ISO 400.

A closeup of a segment of vertabrae with my 75-300mm lens at 120mm focal length with an exposure of 1/50 seconds at f/4.5, ISO 400.

Dinosaur Double Rainbow

 We arrived at the Quarry Visitor Center entrance to Dinosaur National Monument near Jensen Utah just before sunset.  As we headed for a campground in the park, we were treated to this rainbow show. This image was taken with my 24mm lens and an exposure of 1/250 seconds at f/2.5, ISO 400.

I put my 10mm fisheye lens on to capture the full rainbow - the inner rainbow is complete while the outer one is visible over more than half the arc, maybe more with a little imagination.  This image was taken with an exposure of 1/30 seconds at f/2.8, ISO 100.

The sunlit cliffs were dramatic along with the rainbow.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 75mm focal length and an exposure of 1/100 seconds at f/4, ISO 400.

Flaming Gorge geology

As we approached the south end of Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, we found ourselves in an area with stratified cliffs showing the geology of the area in spectacular views.  This image was taken with my 75-300mm lens at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 200.

The top of this cliff has an interesting layer a few feet thick that differs from adjacent layers. This image was taken at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/1000 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 200.

 A closeup of a few layers in a cliff wall.  This image was taken at 75mm focal length with an exposure of 1/400 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 200.

Finally a view of the lake that fills the Flaming Gorge Recreation Area from the roadway at one of the scenic viewpoints.  We could see boats and water skiers.  This image was taken with my 24mm lens and an exposure of 1/125 seconds at f/11, ISO 100.

This last image shows a number of boats on the lake including one with a skier in tow.  This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/200 seconds at f/11, ISO 100.

Bighorn Sheep

After leaving Yellowstone, we drove south, heading for Dinosaur National Monument.  As we neared the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area, I saw a car pulled off to the side of the road at the junction of a dirt road.  A lady had her camera out so I grabbed mine and quietly walked up the dirt road and was treated to a group of Bighorn Sheep that she was photographing.  Here are a few of them.

 This image was taken at 300mm focal length with an exposure of 1/640 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 200.

 

This image was taken at 90mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 200.

This image was taken at 200mm focal length with an exposure of 1/800 seconds at f/5.6, ISO 200.