On Saturday, two days after Loa passed away, I was feeling depressed and Boulder seemed, well, if not depressed then at least lonely. I decided we should both go for a local hike and I chose the Buried Forest trail southeast of town. I’d first heard of this place in May 2019 when an acquaintance was asking around about this 1890s G.E. Anderson photo he’d found online. The formations aren’t actually downed and buried trees, but large spherical concretions that have eroded out of the cliff. I passed along my guess as to where the photo was taken, and I’m sure he had other people weighing in as well. He went out that same weekend and found the spot, only a mile east of my guess. He got approval from the BLM to put in signage and a trail to the concretions.
"Buried Forest" by G.E. Anderson
Boulder and I started down the trail and it was an easy and uneventful one-mile walk to the concretions. I saw some possible fossils along the way where the trail drops below a cliff band. I meant to do some repeat photography of the site but forgot to load the 1890s photo to my phone and didn’t have cell service.
Trailhead sign
Boulder on the trail
Maybe some fossils?
Cairn
Spherical concretion
Concretions
Instead of returning along the trail I wandered around some more, hoping to find some petroglyphs I suspected were in the area. This G.E. Anderson photo of some rock art on an eroded concretion also shows “Sunnyside R.G.W.” as the location, so I assumed it was near the Buried Forest. My wandering paid off and I found the petroglyphs! Along my route back to the truck I found a cowboy camp and some fossilized clam shells. It was a fairly short hike but it did us some good to get out.
"Indian Picture Rock" by G.E. Anderson
Petroglyphs near Buried Forest
The truck at the trailhead
Tobacco tins at an old cowboy camp
Clam fossils
Photo Gallery: Buried Forest