Today we went back to the W. M. Browning Cretaceous Fossil Park site. It is a creek bed that has deposits of prehistoric items that periodically get washed out from the surrounding banks. If you are lucky, or know where to look you are able to find some prehistoric treasures...so we went on a treasure hunt. 
The first time we went, two summers ago, we didn’t have any instructions on what we were looking for or how to successfully find what we were looking for. We just decided we needed an adventure. It wasn't very successful, but we had fun.
This year, we were able to go on a field day scheduled by the Rock and Mineral Group with a geologist who was out there helping to direct and advise people and we were given basic instructions on how to approach our treasure hunt.
So instead of spending lots of time guessing, we ventured into the stream with a plan. Everyone was successful this time in finding a few treasures to bring home and enjoy. The most surprising thing we found was a little flat rock that I found interesting...I found several and only kept one, well it turned out that it was a type of prehistoric animal tooth plate.
An interesting thing about hunting is that many times you find things that you throw out because it doesn’t look like anything and then you find out you threw away fossils.
It takes time and patience to sit and sift through the rocks and sand, but we had fun. Some of our treasures included several types of shark teeth, some petrified wood pieces, and the fish tooth plate. 
Even though we went to find fossils, we also found and examined nature while we were there. Evelyn and I found several dragonfly larvae, a small snake peeking at us while we were sifting around in the sandy bottom of the creek, and many little fish swimming about. Noah found blood worms, which are larvae for a type of fly. We found those the last time we went out and immediately went home to look them up to make sure they weren't harmful, because they were a bit creepy. Noah also scooped up a baby crawfish...no, we didn't eat it, it was way too small.
It is a rather peaceful site. The Creek is called Twenty Mile Creek. I really enjoy just being out there and spending time walking up and down the creek, taking pictures, and enjoying the nature that is surrounding us. It is a very slow moving current and although there are some spots that are deep, for the most part it is an easy shallow place to walk around in. I would caution you to wear shoes and be sure to keep an eye on your younger children because of the deeper areas and the nature. There are snakes in the area. The park itself is not really large so you also have to be aware that if you wander too far you may be trespassing.
Some of our finds. These were shark teeth, petrified wood, and the flat round one is a type of tooth from a prehistoric fish, and like I said earlier, we through out some things that were likely to be fossils if you know what you are looking for. There is always time for another trip out....
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