Fossil Butte Nat'l Monument

We are lucky that there are a lot of really cool places around Big Piney, like Oregon Trail sites and Fort Bridger and various national parks and monuments. This past Saturday was a beautiful day, so we decided to go to Fossil Butte Nat'l Monument and see what it was all about.

It is a dorky habit, but I always try to take a picture of the entrance sign at whatever park we're visiting. That way, we know where we've been :)

According to the literature at the Visitors' Center, the Fossil Butte National Monument (known as FOBU in NPS lingo--City of Rocks was CIRO) sits in what used to be a large lake called Fossil Lake during the Eocene era, a remnant of the huge inland Lake Bonneville. Accordingly, most of the fossils are of sea creatures and plants. My favorite fossil was of a huge palm frond, which was unfortunately too big to fit well in a picture. Sorry. But here are some other really cool fossils:

Sorry about the glare--it was really hard not to get it in the pictures. But aren't they great fossils? Well, they aren't the real deal, they're replicas and the actual fossils are either stored on site or housed in museums around the world. Chances are, if you've seen a fossil from the Eocene era, it came from Fossil Butte.

Here's Dave & Jed in front of the mural in the Visitors' Center. Jed liked the bright colors of the mural but he didn't give a hoot about the fossils. He enjoyed slobbering on Dave's arm, though.

Me and Jed overlooking what used to be part of the Fossil Lake. Being Wyoming, there is now a ton of sagebrush, but it is still really pretty.

Here's Jed hanging out in the truck before we ate lunch. He was so thrilled to be out of his car seat!

It looks like he's thinking "rats, if only my arms were longer, I'd be ready to hit the road!"

After lunch we went on a hike to the old quarry where they used to dig for fossils in the late 1890's and early 1900's. The trail was really mucky and sticky in several places and our shoes (and socks) were brown and nasty by the end, but it was great to get out and see something new and enjoy the balmy weather.

Here's where we went

There were two different kinds of rock in the park, the Wasatch formation, which is mostly sandstone (above) and the Wyoming formation, which is mostly limestone (below). The Wyoming formation contains the fossils.

Isn't the sky so gorgeous?

Here's how Jed spent most of the hike:

This is the quarry that they used to pull most of the fossils out of (the brown things in the center of the hill). It is closed for digging now, but you can still go up and look at where they used to dig. Now during the summer months, palentologists dig in a new site, and on Fridays and Saturdays from June-August, you can go watch.

Here's me and Jed, who decided he had to have a break from the sling or he was going to go bonkers. He wasn't too big a fan of the wind once he was out, though.

At the quarry, they had these pathways that you could walk up to see where they had excavated the fossils. I can't imagine lugging a big rock up and down these little paths!

This is what a fossil looks like when it is still encased in the rock layers. You can tell it's a fossil because it is much darker than the surrounding rock:

After we left the quarry, we continued on to a cabin that a couple of the fossil hunters used back in the 1890's and early 1900's. It was quite a ways away from the quarry, and Dave and I speculated that they must have had horses or mules and wagons to carry the fossils down from the quarry to the cabin. It is really tiny--I can't imagine spending a summer in the heat and the wind, hacking at rocks, and having only this to come home to. But I think the elation of finding a fossil would more than make up for having to sleep on the ground!

I don't think Dave could have stood up very well inside! Here's the interior:

There was a stovepipe hole in the front left corner and a bunch of old rusty cans in the front right corner. And this is it. There was also a little seep off to the right where there must be water, but other than that...nothing. It was great.

I am really glad we went. It was a beautiful day and it was so nice to know that winter is on its last leg. After we got down from the quarry, Jed laid on the tailgate of the truck without his diaper (gasp!) and just enjoyed the breeze in his nether-regions. It was a fabulous trip. If you ever get that way, stop and take a look at Fossil Butte. I really do recommend it!