A couple of years ago, my nephew, Sam, and I went to a dinosaur dig near Livingston, Montana. It was beyond cool—we licked bones!—and this July we were able to return. Paleontologist Cary Woodruff and his crew were still jackhammering and digging around the Apatasaurus that we had helped to partially excavate back in 2013, but this year, a neighboring Stegosaurus had also been discovered on the hilly property, one of its plates literally poking up out of the ground. What luck for us! Bob Harmon, chief preparator for the Museum of the Rockies, was working on it when we arrived. I knew then what my next photo project would be.

Photographer Robb Kendrick and I worked on a