There is so much to see and learn right where we park our cars. My first real lesson in the value of being a parking lot naturalist happened not too long ago on an excursion to hunt geodes in the California desert. We spent several hours in the 100-degree heat hunting geodes in what amounted to a very picked-over geode bed. It was discouraging and super hot, although we were having fun hanging out with our friends and getting dirty. Still, I hoped to actually go home with a geode in my hand. We had parked in a dirt parking lot in the middle of the geode bed, a location where many other people had obviously parked before.
After several hours of seeing lots of cool rocks, none of us had found a single geode, until we sat down in the parking lot to eat lunch in the shade of the cars and started looking down. We discovered a treasure trove of discarded geodes. Most of which were already cracked open so we could see what they looked like inside, which was exciting. But there were several which were simply discarded without even being opened! The kids were mighty thrilled and so were the adults, at having the chance to crack one open to see the ancient surprise inside. We gathered up our geological treasures and headed home counting the day a success of a sort. Which is much better than a total loss in my opinion.
All that to say, I learned my lesson. Check the parking lot first. And then it began to dawn on me how true this is. I began remembering scores of past lessons I have learned from other parking lots. I have seen the San Andreas fault from a parking lot. And volcanic cinder cones from an ancient eruption in a parking lot. I have seen terrific examples of the rain shadow effect from parking lots. I have seen fossils in a parking lot and my first harrier from a parking lot too. I have even done an insect survey of southeastern insects from bugs found on semi-truck grills (yuck!) in rest stops. I have watched crows open trash cans from a parking lot and wondered what other tricks they can perform.
It is true that there is so much of nature to see even in a big city parking lot. So, what if we started looking on purpose and spent time examining what is in and around all kinds of parking lots: urban, suburban, country, and backcountry lots. Join us as we explore ecology, geology, biology, chemistry, meteorology, botany, entomology, zoology and more by taking a closer look after we park the car. We have a lot to learn, from the convenience of a parking lot!
