Death Valley Deep Dive 2024

[Beardilocks]

I took an adventure way off the beaten path into the very heart of the Panamint Mountains to find these cool fossilized camel tracks.  Or something like that…  I have heard no age given on these racks (I believe the park service only first heard about them a few years ago), but if they are even vaguely related to the massive fossil print collection across the valley in Copper Canyon (visitation by NPS sponsored hikes only) they would be around 5 million years old. 

This grouping wasn't even on my radar.  And I think they were the best ones that I found.  They were on a shelf up from the wash a bit.





Here's the main grouping that I was looking for. 











This group was at a different location nearby.


This group was miles away in a different area.  These are harder to distinguish due to decay (obviously). 


I would bet that there are a lot more prints in the area if one looked long enough.  The issue here is that the fossiliferous layer is nearly horizontal, meaning you only see the prints at the edges of a wash that has cut through that layer.  As opposed to the Copper Canyon formation which is nearly vertical, giving you a shot at many many more prints. 

Really cool spot.