- [Narrator] Nevada: Rich with time and topography.
And because there is a park for every adventure,
you'll never feel fenced in.
For two eccentric explorers,
Jessica and Joe,
adventure means digging up time.
Let's follow along
as they explore scenic sights
and search for signs of the past.
(peaceful music)
We're at Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park,
an hour south from Highway 50,
aka the loneliest road in America,
where sage brush and juniper dot the horizon.
This is an old mining town
where the remnants are still in tact,
and some say,
a ghost town.
But our explorers are here
for something way more old,
dusty,
and pale.
Inside this fossil house
is the largest concentration of Ichthyosaur bones.
- Shh! This is sacred dino land.
(gasps) This is the Shanosaur.
It's part of the family of Ichthyosaur,
which is Greek for "fish lizard".
It was a sea creature.
- Did he get lost? (laughs)
- No, dork.
Nevada used to be under a shallow ocean
during the Triassic Period, duh.
- Did you know that people used to think
that they were mammals,
but they're actually reptiles,
just like a crocodile--
- [Together] Or an alligator?
- (gasps) There's fossils outside.
- (gasps) Let's go dig them up.
- [Narrator] Easy Jessica.
Celestial navigation as a means of pathfinding
brings us to our next location
where pre-historic Native Americans once lived.
These nomadic groups used the stars
to move from one location to another.
And while traveling, they stopped
to tag their stories into rock.
Let's join our explorers in Red Rock Canyon,
45 minutes from the Vegas Strip.
Oops, a little stumble.
Nice recovery.
- O-M-G.
I am so excited I am literally tripping over myself.
Do you know what those are?
- Ancient alien Mad Libs.
- No, they're petroglyphs.
They're wall etchings.
They're like a thousand years old.
And those are pictographs.
They're ancient wall paintings.
- Right, I read about those.
The Southern Paiutes would mix powdered minerals,
clay, or charcoal with their saliva and egg whites,
and that's how they would get the paint.
- Whoa.
- Yeah, it's like pre-historic graffiti.
- [Together] Trippy.
(ethereal music)
- Time to circle back to the Keystone Thrust.
- What about lunch?
- There's no time for that.
I say, let geology fuel our mission.
- Come on, at least an orange.
Haven't you heard?
Orange is the new snack.
- [Narrator] 65 million years ago,
continental plates got into a feud
as nasty as those damn Twitter ones,
and the limestone layers one upped the sand dunes,
who Tweeted, I mean, pushed back.
Hence the dramatic landscape.
- The red and the orange colors come from
the oxidation of the iron minerals and the sediments.
- And this is actually Aztec sandstone,
which is less flaky than regular sandstone,
which is why this area is a hot bed for hot rock climbers.
- Well, it is 13 miles of exposed Thrust.
- (laughs) Oh man, geology rocks.
Get it?
- What?
- [Narrator] Not too far from Red Rock Canyon
are the Spring Mountains where our explorers
are one with the ancient bristlecone pines.
These trees lives are more than 5000 year old,
making man's life seem futile and meaningless.
- We are exactly 8749 feet to be exact.
- Such a millennial.
Alright, so, these trees:
because of the high winds, the dry soil,
and the short growing season,
that's why they grow so slowly.
Kind of like your facial hair.
- [Narrator] Oh, good one.
- Just keep in mind that as much as you know,
these trees will always know more than you.
- That's true.
Everyone tells them their secrets when they're out here.
(whispers)
Geology rocks! (laughs)
I get it, geology rocks! (laughs)
- [Narrator] This concludes our adventure
of seeing Nevada through ancient artifacts.
Take a trip through time and make it back by Monday.
TravelNevada.com for more timeless adventures.