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| Ammonite fossils cover the canyon floor as Heather Approaches the next rap in Fossil Snail Canyon |
Walking down the canyon we are flanked by grey polished limestone walls and big views of the Armargosa Valley below us. Circular white indentations cluster the walls like flower designs on cheap 70s wallpaper.
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon. Death Valley National Park |
These crystalized swirls are anything cheap, nor from the 70s, they are Gastropods from the Mississippian era
that date back to around 350-400 million years ago. The brail readings that I get when I lightly sweep my hands over these fossils is a feeling of distant ancient history documented by a geologic footprint of community and diversity.
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon. Death Valley National Park |
Its always interesting to see a few fossils but imagine the floor and walls to your left and right are covered in these ammonites, welcome to Fossil Snail Canyon. Some more information can be found on Wikipedia: Here is some more information about the metamorphosis:
Due to their free-swimming and/or free-floating habits, ammonites often happened to live directly above seafloor waters so poor in oxygen as to prevent the establishment of animal life on the seafloor. When upon death the ammonites fell to this seafloor and were gradually buried in accumulating sediment, bacterial decomposition of these corpses often tipped the delicate balance of local redox conditions sufficiently to lower the local solubility of minerals dissolved in the seawater, notably phosphates and carbonates. The resulting spontaneous concentric precipitation of minerals around a fossil, a concretion, is responsible for the outstanding preservation of many ammonite fossils
Due to their free-swimming and/or free-floating habits, ammonites often happened to live directly above seafloor waters so poor in oxygen as to prevent the establishment of animal life on the seafloor. When upon death the ammonites fell to this seafloor and were gradually buried in accumulating sediment, bacterial decomposition of these corpses often tipped the delicate balance of local redox conditions sufficiently to lower the local solubility of minerals dissolved in the seawater, notably phosphates and carbonates. The resulting spontaneous concentric precipitation of minerals around a fossil, a concretion, is responsible for the outstanding preservation of many ammonite fossils
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| Heather in Beast mode as she hikes to the top of Fossil Snail Canyon in the Funeral Mountains. |
On a beautiful February morning, Heather and I opt out of watching the super bowl for some canyoneering in a remote section of the National Park called the Funeral mountains.
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon |
The Funeral Range is home to many canyons that have some interesting challenges with big views and a lot of fossils to see in the rock.
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| Heather taking a break at the head of Fossil Snail Canyon |
Fossil Snail canyon is a relatively new canyon that was discovered by Scott Swaney and crew in the early months of 2016.
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Heather works her way up the funeral mountains. |
Heather and I got an early start for the approach hike which consists of a 4 mile approach, a .7 mile hike up the mountain, a traverse, and about a mile of down canyoneering with another 4 miles back to the car.
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon |
We made the ridge and started to notice slabs of limestone full of Ammonites. These are the modern snail but with some added character to them.
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| Can this be a Jurassic Ammonite called a Kosmoceras? Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Heather passing by fossils in Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon. Death Valley National Park |
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| Ammonites. Fossil Snail Canyon. Death Valley National Park |
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| Heather in Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Heather crab walking down with Gastropods covering the floor in Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Heather pointing out the gastropods on the floor in Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Heather overlooking the big drop in Fossil Snail Canyon |
I am willing to bet that the actual ground that we were walking on was positioned around another section of the planet, possibly near Africa, and through tectonic restructuring, the continents moved here and the funeral mountains uplifted to where they are today.
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| Heather in Fossil Snail Canyon |
We encountered around 10 raps that were upto around 140ft in length. We brought a 210 ft rope, a 90ft rope, and a 70ft rope. We also had some webbing but the anchored appeared to be in a good condition at the time that we went. Your experience might be different.
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| Heather in Fossil Snail Canyon |
Please bring extra webbing and replace the existing webbing. The sun will bleach and rot the webbing which can create a big problem if one of the anchors webbing material rips apart.
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| Heather rapping by some maroon color veins in the limestone |
We came down to the bottom of the canyon and we had our four mile hike back to the car with a lot of sunlight left. We headed back and made it to the car in around 8 hours time.
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| Heather checking on a pothole in Fossil Snail Canyon, |
This was a very unique canyon and I am privileged to have so many amazing places around us that are all not to far away. I highly recommend Fossil Snail Canyon for a nice day trip.
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| Heather in Fossil Snail Canyon |
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| Funeral Range |
