Coolest Find While Hiking

[9patrickmurphy]

Coopers Rocky Mountain Snail!

Well how about that! Never once seen a snail crawling around in the alpine but I've seen tons of these shells - thanks for correcting my assumption. Still quite weird.

[Chipmunk]

On the subject of high altitude snails - I saw a live one at 12,400 feet in the white gully on Sleeping Sexton!

[Wentzl]

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[randalmartin]

While hiking Silverheels from the Hwy 9 direct route, I came across an old picnic table. Not near any road, couldn't imagine carrying that up. Maybe built onsite?

Silverheels Picnic Table.JPG

[DiamondCutter]

I see Nautilus shells all over the place in Colorado, mostly in the Elks but in the Juans as well.

Coopers Rocky Mountain Snail!

I found a couple of these in Maroon Bells and was excited to think they might be some type of sea shells or something. I figured that couldn't be the case without being fossilized. Thanks for adding this link, that explains what I found on those peaks. Pretty cool nonetheless.

[Trotter]

Once while hiking on some private land in North Dakota, found this on top of a butte. We thought it was some kind of memorial or voodoo shrine. But the big liver looking thing still confuses me.

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Also in south texas, crossed over a creek and found some arrowhead chips sticking out of the dirt. Spent a couple hours digging and sifting and got quite a few arrowheads and scrapers and lots of broken pieces. Did some research on the complete arrowheads, and they are apparently from the 2500 - 250 BC era.

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[ejfred]

Love this thread!

While backpacking in Lost Creek Wilderness, our group found a fort that was built with nearby wood and fencing material, (barbed wire?). We camped out in there overnight. Pretty cool find, wish I took some pictures of it.

[IntrepidXJ]

Love this thread!

While backpacking in Lost Creek Wilderness, our group found a fort that was built with nearby wood and fencing material, (barbed wire?). We camped out in there overnight. Pretty cool find, wish I took some pictures of it.

That's not cool at all. LNT

[HikerBox]

Also in south texas, crossed over a creek and found some arrowhead chips sticking out of the dirt. Spent a couple hours digging and sifting and got quite a few arrowheads and scrapers and lots of broken pieces. Did some research on the complete arrowheads, and they are apparently from the 2500 - 250 BC era.

Probably private land in Texas but just worth noting it's illegal to collect arrowheads/lithics/pot shards etc. on public land per the Antiquities Act.

[the_hare]

Was hiking to Pear Lake in RMNP and stepped off trail and up a small talus slope to take a picture of some columbines. I looked down into the rocks and found an old leather boot. Morbidly I assumed I'd find somebody's skeletal foot stuck inside as well, but instead scattered around the crevices I found a ton of various decades-old grocery items: a Hills Bros. coffee tin, a slightly rusted Budweiser can, rustier Coors can, Prince Albert crimp cut tobacco tin, small Skippy peanut butter jar, Real Gold orange juice can, along with some other rustier containers and a glass Coke bottle from Denver. I walked down to the lake to wash the sediment out of the bottom of the Coke bottle and poured out a bunch of mouse remains right into my hand. Later I looked up the Budweiser can design and it seems to be from the late 50s-early 60s.

In Lair O' the Bear area near Panorama Point on an abandoned trail to a cleared out campground-looking area I found a black garbage bag full of vintage and mostly rust-free Vernors gingerale cans.

Again in Lair O' the Bear higher up on the hillside overlooking the main park area I found a boulder with a ton of runic etchings on it. I tried scratching some in myself to see how it took, whoever did all that was definitely up there a while.

Found a couple more older bottles off trail too, one was 7-Up bottle on a small knoll after a failed attempt of Mt Guyot. Another vintage RC Cola appeared sitting in a creek off Bard Creek Trail right where I stopped to admire how the sunlight lit up the misting rain through the trees.

Coolest organic find probably two slime mold specimens on the side of Wilcox peak off Guanella pass well above treeline.

And coolest ephemeral find is definitely the imprint of bird wings in snow. A whole flock of little birds one winter atop Mt Morrison engraved some really stunning designs. Oh that reminds me that I found a ladybug swarm across many tufts of tall grass at the summit there as well late one winter.

[whileyh]

Fresh mountain lion head

[d_baker]

^ that's wild and bizarre! Where's the skull?!