Coastal Fossils - Gifts of the Winter Beach #2

...continued from... Coastal Fossils - Gifts of the Winter Beach

We arrived at the central Oregon coast late in the afternoon, just in time to enjoy a few coastal stops (Otter Rock, Devil's Punchbowl) and sunset at Yaquina Head Lighthouse [IBL] where we saw some of the local wildlife [IBL][II]. Not wanting to waste daylight, we settled in to our hotel [IBL] in Newport and went out for dinner [IBL]  after the sun had set. We swam to loosen up from the long drive and prep for the next day.

Photos: Chiara DeNeve

I had several likely beaches in mind for our winter fossil excursion, and after talking with a few locals settled on the beach we would start with.... We hit the beach before low tide the next morning ~> Lost Creek!

The low tides, waves, and the storm from several days before had done their job on this beach, stripping the beach of a LOT of sand and exposing a lot of loose rock and rocky substrate. Warning: there is never a guarantee that low tides, storms, or waves will expose fossils; when beach fossil hunting you are definitely in peril of just enjoying the beach!

But the January weather and tides had conspired to give us a beautiful day (50+°F) and a wonderfully exposed beach. The picture to the left was taken after the tide had started to rise again. You can easily see the expanse of beach rubble and the exposed rock formations.





By the end of the next day the rubble on this beach and the exposed rock in the picture to the left was covered by sand again, see photo on the right >.

Eroding bank

The ground was still icy when we got to the beach, and it was cool enough that the shaded eroding bank stayed icy for several hours.















But, we started finding interesting pieces as soon as we got to the beach...

A curious fossil, but I think...

Bivalve (clam) concretion

Gastropod fossil - Agate

Bivalve (clam) concretion of fossils and boring worms

We were so busy looking for fossils and agates that we didn't take a lot of pictures of what we were collecting while we were on the beach, but we did keep the fossils separated according to collection sites so we could group fossils/ photos later. All of the fossils collected were photographed before and after cleaning and will be discussed in detail in an upcoming blog! [IBL]

We spent most of the first day at Lost Creek, but we took a little time to check out Moolack Beach.


The very short winter days found at this latitude are very frustrating to the fossil hunter when the beach is good...









Even though it was near high tide we took the time to check out the beach so we had our plan for first thing in the morning. We also took this time to look at the erosional banks and at the beach rubble higher up the beach.

The fossils we found in the sandstone along the eroding beach bank were very interesting...



... we found a lot of charred wood (right click and open the image in a new tab for a better view)...












...assorted
 bivalves...

... and a few mystery fossils...

It was getting too dark to continue our hunt for fossils, so we knew it must be time to find sustenance, stretch our backs out in the pool, and get ready for tomorrow!








Join us in our ongoing Quest...
... continued in... Coastal Fossils - Gifts of the Winter Beach #3 [IBL]