Matt Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Things have slowed down here at home after returning back from the trip to the Peace River and now I would like to report on the weekend adventure. We camped at Brownville Campground and it truly is a great place, although very crowded on Saturday, not so bad on Sunday. We were the only tent on Friday after arriving but we went out on Saturday morning and came back a few hours later and literally 100 people had moved into the tent area and it was unimaginable that so many people appeared in the couple hours that we were up past Gardner. Be prepared if that ever happens to you The bathrooms at the campground are pretty good with hot showers but the whole park is on sulfur water so the shower was not the best feeling after being in the river all day but it did do the job. The park hosts are very polite and helpful and I strongly recomend anyone stay at the campground if you need to camp around the river. The boat ramp is surreal as some here know because it is giant and white and looks like a huge wave. There are good spots to fossil in either direction... Saturday we discovered a couple new places to search and found some interesting fossils. I stopped back along the way to snorkel at a bend that was about 4 feet deep and very clear. Sunday we went upstream and then downstream from the Brownville boatramp. Brownville is a dream spot for anyone who wants to wade or hardly get wet without the need for a boat. We found many teeth including horse, parts of mastodon, alligator and many other mammals. Lots of turtle shell and bits and pieces of rays including a great dermal thorn. Found a beautiful porcupine fish crushing plate that is gold and light tan and very shiny. An inch and a half gar scale. Found a nice big chunk of a meg tooth and I think a vertebrate of a dugong, it is in the picture with the fossils on the wood at the lower left. The next trip we are taking will be either staying at Oscar Schearer state park and going to Casey Key and Venice Beach or staying at Alexander Springs and exploring further downstream on the run of Alexander Springs run and maybe a couple of other spots I have heard about in the Ocala National Forest. It will be around the first half of April and I will definetly be making a report here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommabetts Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Those are some awesome finds!!!!!!!!!!! Love the pictures of the river and you working it. Thanks for sharing them with us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted March 12, 2009 Author Share Posted March 12, 2009 Thank You I was hoping to sort of capture the different ways of searching the Peace River and definetly enjoyed every minute of it. Snorkeling was a lot of fun and having that inflatable kayak makes getting around fun too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaleoRon Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 The gravel bottom looks really interesting. That's the type of spot where I loose all track of time and end up walking out in the dark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimmy1971 Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Awesome finds! Looks like a beautiful place to spend the day searching and exploring. Thanks for the pictures! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Auspex Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Great report: the accommodations, the river, the finds; now I feel like I know something about this storied place. Thank you! "There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know nothing about." - Ashleigh Ellwood Brilliant “Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.” - Thomas Henry Huxley >Paleontology is an evolving science. >May your wonders never cease! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJB Posted March 12, 2009 Share Posted March 12, 2009 Great photos!!! RB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shamalama Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Thanks for the report and great pics! Looks like you made out quite well. I'll have to add that to my list of spots to visit next time I'm in FL. I've been the Wauchula but not really explored anywhere else. As a Yankee I worry about the Aligators when wandering around in a river in Florida. Dave -Dave __________________________________________________ Geologists on the whole are inconsistent drivers. When a roadcut presents itself, they tend to lurch and weave. To them, the roadcut is a portal, a fragment of a regional story, a proscenium arch that leads their imaginations into the earth and through the surrounding terrain. - John McPheeIf I'm going to drive safely, I can't do geology. - John McPheeCheck out my Blog for more fossils I've found: http://viewsofthemahantango.blogspot.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bmorefossil Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 great pictures Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roz Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 You sure cleaned up! Amazing how many fossils you guys find there... Welcome to the forum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
worthy 55 Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Great stuff!!!!!!!! I need to get back down there. It's my bone!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted March 13, 2009 Author Share Posted March 13, 2009 Thanks for the replies and kudos. There are so many fossils there that we started playing catch and release We didnt see any alligators, I did save a frog from being eaten by a black racer snake which was on a river bank right in front of me and the frog was making a really loud distress call so I basically just walked over to the bank and the snake let go and went back into the woods. Also saw MANY good size large mouth bass and little 3 inch long flounders while snorkeling. Pretty cool. There were some deeper darker areas of the river where it just mysteriously is no longer clear water and just plain murky. I would not dare go into that sort of water. I try to only search where I can see around and under me. Soon the Peace River will get to being a lot deeper than it is right now and during that time it would be really good to spend some time in Gainesville and around the Santa Fe River. Peace River still has soooooo many fossils that it will continue to produce awesome finds for as long as the river is still there. In fact you can see shark teeth literally coming out of the river banks but I wont say just exactly where that was I didnt even want to collect any from that spot because it seemed like some sort of special place. Now back to my special place, netflix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted March 13, 2009 Share Posted March 13, 2009 Very cool. Nice to see some of that legendary Florida geology, hydrology, etc, etc...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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