Trek day13 – Muktinah to Kagpeni

It would be a short (2-3 hour), downhill hike from Muktinah to Kagbeni.  We left early in the morning so we’d have most of the day to go fossil hunting in the riverbed by Kagbeni.  Yves knew what to look for since he’d been to Nepal a few times before and had found several ammonites. In fossil form, ammonites look like smooth, ovular, dark stone…but break them open (properly) and you can find the fossil of a creature that existed over 14 million years ago before the Himalaya were even formed.

 

 

The brown/ grey landscape reminds of Utah/ Arizona.

 

 

The village of Kagbeni

 

 

 

Fields of millet and the Kali Gandaki riverbed

 

 

Pathway down to the riverbed

 

 

We weren’t the only ones who thought it was hot that day…

 

Looking…

  

And looking…

And finding what we think look like salamites (ammonites encased in rock).  None of them would end up yielding anything except pyrite.

 

Yves hammering for fossils

 

 

The riverbed was quite wide but most of it was dry (monsoon season is June – Sept). 

 

 

Iron pyrite crystals inside one of our finds.

 

ALL of the (about 10 or so) rocks would turn out to be… just rocks.  But we did find these other open fossil fragments.

 

 

 

 

Although it was a lot of fun looking, no one found any “complete” ammonites.  I ended up buying this ammonite from a local for about $3.

(Looks like a rock above…)

 

But once cracked, a perfect positive and negative cast is revealed. 

 

 

Walking back to our hotel through the fields of millet (we think)