30 Jun Boys and Girls Club of America Comes to Fossil Beds

This week we had the Boys and Girls Club of America from Colorado Springs, Colorado, come and experience the Geology and Paleontology Camp. We had nine 4th and 5th graders come, ready to learn. These future scientists were all very passionate and super knowledgeable in the geosciences. Our time with them was short, as we were cut by an hour, but thanks to their smart brains the only impact that had on the camp was rain, thunder and lightning.

The whole week we were on storm watch, as the storm clouds were coming in as early as 10 a.m. Most of the time it was just dark clouds, and lightning was reported far, far away, but Friday everything changed. Friday early morning we had a big cell cloud form over us that brought lightning, thunder and large droplets of rain. Our campers got to see lightning touch the ground here at the Fossil Beds, from the safety of inside our visitor center. The campers were forced to eat their lunch on the bus, since that was the safest place to eat at the monument. To me, the whole storm felt like it lasted for hours, when in reality it was probably about an hour long. Here is a picture of what the clouds looked like after the storm; can anyone ID them for me?

As I end week three of camp, I am starting to feel a lot of emotions as my end time here is coming up. Can summer slow down, please? I’ve been enjoying my weekends by going into other neighboring cities and being a tourist. My favorite so far has been Manitou Springs, and doing the mineral water tasting. In Colorado Springs, I have found a community with similar gaming interests and have been spending my free time down there. Moving into a small town I was concerned about missing the big city of Los Angeles, but all the good things LA has I can find it within a 30-minute driving distance 

Thank you for your time