In which Bill Farrell tries to make me acutely jealous...and succeeds

Jeez. I'm not a paleontologist, and I'm jealous.

Still Anomalicaris's around lying on the ground? Wow.

I presume you cant carry stuff out. It would be great to have one, though.

I asked the lady at the fossil store once if she was unethically selling the fossils of endangered species. She didn't get it.

If you note the sign in one of the early pictures it reads:

"IT IS UNLAWFUL TO REMOVE FOSSILS"

or it did - in the photo it's been edited to read

"IT ISCUNTAWFUL TO REMOVE FOSSILS"

Which is funny, too.

I've been as far as the waterfall.....

I'm soooo jealous!!!!!!
Definately an honor to be invited to go.

Still Anomalicaris's around lying on the ground? Wow.

I was impressed too. Note that only guided hikes are allowed.

Bastard!!! Wish I could go. However, I can content myself with downloading reams of papers from the Royal Academy, thanks to Carl Zimmer's post alerting us to the fact that their archives back to 1665 are free until December. Phil.Trans.Roy.Soc.B, here I come!

I did the hike back in 2001. Great scenery, so many fossils even I could find some - what more could you want?

The most surprising thing to me was how small the quarry was, given it's significance. The second photo on page 3 is pretty much it.

I checked the original in my iPhoto library and it's the actual sign that's been modified, not the photo. The French version loses a lot in the translation.

It's always fun to hunt fossils, but it's a shame when you have to do it in such mundane surroundings.

OK, another reason to get in shape.

I wonder if they've got anything in place to avoid having some of those exposed fossils weathering away. Even for things as common as some trilobites, it is a shame for a bug to have been fossilized and survived all these years only to weather away because there's lots of them.

llewelly:

Note that only guided hikes are allowed.

That's what helicopters are for.

Mount Stephen Fossil Beds in 1996. I really need to redo those pics now that scanners have improved a bit, sorry!
http://user.mc.net/~mena/sciences/paleo/burgess/BShale.htm

The Park has installed solar powered motion detectors on Mt. Stephens and there's a camera being installed at Walcott. You can see the camera, small black box, in the first photo on page Photos 4, to the right of the person in the red shirt.

Our guide said the penalty for poaching fossils is $2500 and 30 days in jail. I believe that's per item, but I'm not sure.

I was supposed to go this fall but our plans got de-railed... something about my dad being sick and me not working. I'm jealous, too! Next year in the Walcott Quarry!

Viewing the photos is cruel and unusual punishment. Even this retired book editor/publisher is jealous.

I did a (ranger-led) hike to the mountain across the valley from the Burgess Shale. We couldn't walk on the shale beds without trodding on trilobites. Oh so memorable.

We sure are a geeky bunch aren't we? My next stop-Cern!

Are these guided hikes open to the general public, or do you need an excuse to be let in? I think it looks like a damned cool day out.

The Burgess Shale Foundation operates the hikes. The cost is $60/person and you must bring your own lunch/trail snacks. The guide is a masters level or PhD geologist (ours was a first year PhD student), trained in First Aid and familiar with the area. There's a link on my About page to the Foundation where you can read all the details.

We really lucked out. The hikes are booked a year in advance. Stupid me, I called on Tuesday to sign up for a hike on Friday, the penultimate hike of the season, and they had two cancellations. Dumb luck or Intelligent Design? You be the judge!

That place is just plain beautiful.