Fossils near the Superstitions

It's been overcast all day, with a 30% chance of rain. I left the house this afternoon thinking I would go out to FS172 again, or some other road out there. The clouds were very dark to the east, and that's the direction I was going. I thought about the satellite view of the roads I was planning to be on. They criss-crossed washes, and were even in the middle of the wash for stretches. We don't usually get rain hard enough to cause flash floods this time of year, but I decided to not take any chances. I headed out Apache Trail towards Canyon Lake. There was a lot of traffic on the road despite the bad weather so I stopped at the side of the road just before the Weaver's Needle parking lot. I hadn't planned to hike because my foot has been hurting a lot. I was just going to go for a short walk part way up a small hill.

There were some interesting rocks on the hill. There was just one that looked like it had fossils in it. I took a bunch of pictures of it. There are several areas that look like pieces of crinoid stems. There's also one part that looks like the trail left by a worm as it ate its way through the mud.

2007_02_11

I was a little surprised to find that rock there. It looked out of place and I kind of wonder if somebody put it there. Most of the rock in that area is volcanic in origin. The hoodoos all over the Superstitions are weathered tuff. I did find a few other rocks on that hill that looked like they were sedimentary rocks, though.

It always seems like I'm not able to sit and contemplate the rocks for very long. Usually it's the setting sun that forces me to leave. Today it was rain. I heard thunder in the distance on my way up the hill. The thunder stopped long before I got to the top, but the wind was blowing a steady 20 mph and then it started sprinkling. I got out one of my handy dandy emergency ponchos and started down the leeward side of the hill. It's a one-size-fits-all poncho, which means it fits me very loosely. I had to be careful to not walk too close to cholla or ocotillo, lest they shred my poncho. The rocks looked much more colorful as they glistened in the rain.