National Monuments - Texas

Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument

5/23/2002 Drove up to Alibates Flint Quarry NM. We were early for 10:00 tour – nobody there. Right before 10, 4 rangers and two buses of 5th graders showed up. Drove a little way into the monument, then we got a private tour with one ranger while the school classes followed. Walked up moderate hills seeing beautiful flint formations everywhere in seams of dolomite. At the top saw areas where Indians had dug out flint, broken off good pieces, and discarded little pieces. Great talk by ranger on nature, geology and flint stuff. Walked down, and saw flint tool-making demo.

The park sign

A long view from the trail

A flint area ...

... and a close-up

A buddy on the tour

Tool-making demo

Waco Mammoth National Monument

4/14/2018 Further north in Waco we entered Waco Mammoth NM. We seriously expected to be one of few people here, but the place was really crowded, partially due to a visit by a crowd of seniors from an auto club, with many vintage cars in the lot. We signed up for a 2:30 tour, and got a perky and very informative tour guide. She led us down the path to the main display building which covered the fossil finds. A full herd of mammoths had been removed from this area to museums, and this building covered additional mammoths and other animals preserved in situ. We enjoyed looking down on the cool display with the guide’s interesting talk.

The park sign

The VC and tour start area

Our guide near the main pit

The main pit area ...

... with cool fossils

Another fossil area ...

... showing huge teeth

Ken in the crowd

Me and a Mammoth