Coastal Fossils - Gifts of the Winter Beach #3

...continued from... Coastal Fossils - Gifts of the Winter Beach #2

The third day of the excursion, the second full day of fossil and agate hunting, began where the previous day ended: the lower section of Moolack Beach. Again when we arrived the path to the beach was very frosty, and again we started our fossil hunting before the tide was at it's lowest.

Low tide opened a large expanse of beach for exploration, but as you can see there wasn't much beach rubble exposed on the low tide beach...

... but while we didn't find as many fossils/ agates, we did find some very interesting fossils and we had a great time exploring lower Moolack Beach! [IBL]

We photographed this fossil concretion "in place", since, under all that sand, it is still attached to the rocky substrate! (Please enjoy this fossil concretion in place so others can enjoy it also!) The quarter in the pic gives an idea of the size (a quarter is ~ 1" across).


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 If you're in the Newport, Or., area at low tide and you're interested in fossils, here is where this^ fossil is attached to Moolack Beach...

A close-up of the scallop-type fossil in the above concretion >>>
Below is more of the type of rock that this fossil is in...






















The beach was amazing...














We found these large concretions moderately high on the bank.

< This ~9 1/2" concretion appears to be made up of mostly mollusc fossils.

The concretion to the right has a few bivalve fossils and some interesting crystalline type "fillings". We'll be taking a closer look at it once we get it home!

We found some additional pieces, including a concretion with pieces of bone, agate, and gastropods (snails); additional photos, identification, and discussion of the fossils found during this excursion will be posted in an upcoming blog posting  [IBL][Ii].



 After exploring Moolack it was time to head back to Lost Creek to see what the tides had done to the beach since yesterday... would there be more beach exposure? or would the tides have brought sand up to cover the beach?





The change in the beach was immediately obvious! [IBL]

There was definitely more sand on the beach than there was at the same point in the tidal stage than the day before.

Some of the "mushroom" type rock formations we had looked at the day before were completely covered by sand, others were still showing but not nearly as much...

After checking the area of the beach we "hunted" yesterday, and finding only a few pieces, we moved south of Lost Creek to explore further down Lost Creek Beach.

Sands of Lost Creek...
 

The southern section of Lost Creek is also interesting; it seems not to be as deeply eroded as the area northern section (compare exposed section below to the exposed section above).

We picked up some more fossils and agates, but in this area more of the fossils were gastropods ("snails") rather than bivalves ("clams"). [Iv]

...and we found some interesting mud stone formations...









As the tide rose we ate a very late lunch on some well positioned rocks and enjoyed the view...

Since I knew the heights and times for the tides (make sure you collect this info before you set out on a coastal excursion, and watch the weather and tides closely! : ) I knew we did not need to rush back up the beach; we took our time and wandered back up the beach , enjoying our finds, the weather, and the incredible views, along the way...

... since we wanted to take some pics of the sunset from Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, and the sun was quickly dropping to the horizon, it was time to say goodbye to Lost Creek... and to this winter-time fossil hunting excursion.

Join us in our ongoing Quest...
... continued in... Coastal Fossils- The Winter Collection #1 (1 of 2)[IBL]