I started my journey flying into Reno, meeting up with my buddy Chandler, and heading to the Nevada Museum of Art. There, I filmed the exhibit “Deep Time: Sea Dragons of Nevada,” which shows marine reptile fossils primarily from Nevada’s Augusta Mountains.
The way the ichthyosaur skulls and skeletons are preserved allows them to fit beautifully within an art exhibit. Nearby, a laser-light installation brilliantly (and accurately) captures the massive 60-foot-long Shonisaurus while maintaining an elegant, artistic approach. Everything in the exhibit—including Annie Alexander’s field equipment and historical documents, fossil specimens, and a video showing modern paleontologists working at local sites—works together to make a world-class exhibit for Nevada’s epic sea dragons.
Our stop for the night was Middlegate Station, a historic trading post that is now a bar, restaurant, motel, and gas station. Inside, the rustic wood trim, taxidermy, and ceiling adorned with dollar bills (pinned from travelers over the decades) gives visitors a real taste of Nevada’s Western spirit. Our stay was quiet and peaceful, and I vividly remember watching the sun set in the desert valley.
The next day, we traveled to Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, a mining ghost town in the Augusta Mountains that also contains ichthyosaur fossils. This mix of natural and Western history in such a remote destination is a must-see…