Our drive was almost a disaster as my mountain bike nearly fell off the rack on I-80. The front tire went flat leaving way too much gap between the wheel and the arm of the rack. I noticed it moving in the mirror so we stopped at the next exit. I got out in a crazy windstorm that blasted me with sand and gravel as I tried to inspect the bike. The only thing that had kept the bike upright was the bead of the tire. It was still sealed to the rim. The entire bike was literally being held up by that seal. All the sealant was gone as there was a hole in the sidewall that had apparently given out during the drive. I tightened down the arm of the rack against the rim and we were good to go. That was close!
We had to camp Sunday night out in the Wyoming plains. We found a small campground literally in the middle of nowhere. It was over 20 miles from any town and located along the Fontenelle Reservoir. There was only about four people staying in the campground. We stayed on the back loop and had this half of the campground all to ourselves. It was very windy yet again, but we got smarter this time. We tried to hide from the wind behind the wind/rain shelter that was positioned over the picnic table. We also staked the tent down first this time, which made all the difference. It made all the poles easier to get into their slot and it didn't collapse on us like the previous day. We were treated to a colorful sunset followed by a cold night filled with the howling of coyotes.
Those specks on the left are the campground picnic table covers. We were truly in nowhere.
The Fontenelle Reservoir from our campsite
The moon was up early
Afternoon colors over the horizon
Loved this bike silhouette the lantern made with my road bike. I noticed this when coming back from the bath house.
The next morning we were up at dawn again. We watched the pronghorn antelope walk around the reservoir as we packed the tent. Rain was threatening all morning, but the heavy showers missed us and we were able to pack in the dry.
Cloudy and blue dawn over the reservoir
More colors as the sun comes up
Pronghorn near the reservoir
We made it over to Fossil Butte National Monument by 10 and started with a hike up the butte on the south side of the park. The hike took us up a steep climb to the Historic Fossil Quarry, the original site of fossil research in the area. This is where I expected to see the fish fossils on the cliff rocks. The quarry was interesting, but there were no fish to be seen. I walked the entire quarry twice just to make sure I didn't miss them, but there was nothing there other than uncovered fossils still within the cliff. These fish appeared as dark, horizontal lines along the cliff wall, hardly anything exciting. To say I was a bit disappointed is an understatement. Shannon had to listen to me rant about misleading website photos for the rest of the 2.5-mile loop.
One view from the Historic Fossil Quarry Trail
Steps of the quarry
Quarry cliffs...no fish
View of the valley from the quarry
On the trail
Thankfully, we did get to see something on this loop. We passed by the Haddenham Cabin on the way down. David Haddenham built the "cabin" in 1918 to serve as a shelter during the summer when he spent all his time searching for fossils in the area. He then ran a service station in the now-deserted town of Fossil during the winter. It wasn't much of a cabin, more like a wooden tent. Haddenham searched for fossils here for around 50 years from the early 1900s to the early 1950s. I can't believe he lived in that tiny cabin every summer for 30+ years.
Haddenham Cabin
Inside the "cabin"
We headed to the Visitor's Center next where we found out there is a second quarry off of another hiking trail and this quarry is currently being excavated. The hope of seeing a fish fossil outside on a rock was alive again! The visitor's center was very nice and contained some really cool fossil specimens. Instead of dinosaurs, this park contains more modern animals that we recognize. There's all sorts of fish to be seen, along with alligators, turtles, shrimp, insects, snakes and different types of plants.
Alligator
Cast of one of the snake fossils
Shrimp
Turtle
Huge palm leaf showing this desert plain was tropical at some point
Another turtle
Fish like I was hoping to see outside on a hike
The wall of fish
Gar
Stingray, one of my favorites
These turtles are huge!
We hit the Nature Trail next to hike up to the active quarry site. Other than some good views of the surrounding countryside and a few random groves of aspen trees, we saw nothing. No animals and no fossils. The public is not allowed access to the active quarry. You can only get in if you are on a Park Ranger-guided tour which only happens a few times on weekends. So no fish fossils. Again, the website is misleading as they have pictures of the fish fossils on rocks sticking out of the cliff. They've either chiseled those out and moved them to the visitor's center, or they're not accessible to the public.
View from the Nature Trail trailhead
Nature Trail through a small grove of aspens
View from the top of the Nature Trail climb
We ended our Fossil Butte experience with a drive up the gravel Scenic Drive. It starts with an 18% grade on a choppy gravel road that was a challenge for our car, but we made it. We almost got run off the road twice by Jeeps who were afraid to move to the edge of the road. One of those times almost got our little car stuck, but we survived. You would think someone driving a capable off-road vehicle like a Jeep would give a small car more room on such a road.
View from the top of the Scenic Drive hill. You can see the road we took up curving around through the sagebrush.
View west off the top of the ridge on the Scenic Drive
View east
In all, Fossil Butte is pretty cool. Just don't plan on seeing a fossil in the wild. If you do decide to go here and to Dinosaur National Monument, come here first. It would be much more impressive if you haven't seen Dinosaur yet.
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