Berlin Ichthyosaur Park August 2019

This little known state park lies more or less in the middle of nowhere in Nevada. We took advantage of the long Labor Day weekend to spend a day at the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park. It is the red dot between Gabbs, which has a few services and Ione which has none.

Thinking that there might be a crowd at the campground, Calvin and I left Friday morning to get a campsite.  We were the second campers there when we arrived and when the Bordelons arrived after dinner they were the third campers there. Nice to get away from the crowds.

Calvin and I took a little time to explore during the day and toured the remains of Unionville.  The only house still standing was built of adobe bricks in the 1860's. It survived this long because people lived in it until the mid 1900's.

It looked like they covered the bricks with mud, but looking closely they really look hand-made.

Bordelons arrived a little bit before sunset and while Sarah and Toby set up camp the rest of us enjoyed the sunset.

Then the best part of camping...building a fire and roasting marshmallows.

  
We spent some time looking at a sky full of brilliant stars and then crawled in our tents for the night. (Not my favorite part of camping.)
The next morning I took a walk along the nature trail to the fossil house with the grandkids while Calvin rode his bike and Sarah and Toby broke camp.

 This is a real life size representation of one of the ichthyosaurs found in this fossil site. They were apparently an apex predator during their day.

We met up with everyone else for a tour of the fossil site and then went just beyond the park border to hunt for our own fossils with some success. Then after a picnic lunch we toured the ghost town of Berlin, which really only existed between 1896 and 1908. There was a cool old truck with a wooden steering wheel.

an interesting machine shop

and of course a photo op

I love going on adventures with the family.