Fossil Butte National Monument

3 Shares

Fossil Butte National Monument is located in Southwestern Wyoming and showcases some of the worlds best preserved fossils. When you think of Wyoming you probably don’t think of a subtropical environment but that is exactly what this area was millions of years ago.

Fossil Butte NM showcases some of the thousands of fossils that have been found along the ridges surrounding the park. These fossils are part of the Green River Formation and include a 15 foot crocodile like species, tons of fish, snakes, worms, birds and more.

As soon as you enter Fossil Butte National Monument and drive towards the visitor center you realize just how much history has happened and the changes that occurred in the area over millions and billions of years. There is an amazing timeline display as you drive that details the history of earth and the area you are driving. This timeline continues as you get to the visitor center.

Top things to do at Fossil Butte National Monument

Fossil Butte National Monument Visitor Center

The Fossil Butte Visitor Center is truly the heart of this great park. You will want to give yourself more than enough time to check out the visitor bureau. One of the best parts of the visitor bureau is the Park Rangers working on fossils right in the lobby. You can sit and watch the rangers cleaning a fossil from the park and ask questions while they do it.

We found ourselves sitting and watching them working for over a half and hour. It felt like a dramatic mystery waiting to see what was going to be uncovered.

The visitor center also has amazing examples of hundred of fossils that have been found in the national monument.

There are two park films available within the visitor center. I am going to warn you that the park films are a bit dry but have a ton of great information in them.

If you collect national park passport stamps you can get the Fossil Butte stamp along with the Oregon Trail National Historic Trail and California Trail National Historic Trail stamps.

Become a Junior Ranger

The Fossil Butte Junior Ranger Program will take anywhere from 30 to 90 minutes depending on the age of the participant. There are a few items that need to be done within the visitor center including finding your favorite fossil and writing about it.

You can also pick up or turn in the Paleontologist Junior Ranger program at this park.

Check out the Scenic Drive

The scenic drive starts paved and then turns into a crushed gravel dirt road. We would not suggest taking a RV or towing a trailer on the dirt portion of this scenic drive. There is quite an incline at the beginning along with some curved portions that would not be fun in an RV.

Keep an eye out for wildlife along the scenic trail. We saw multiple antelope as we drove the scenic drive.

Fossil Quarry Program

On Fridays and Saturdays during the summer you can help look for fossils in our fossil research quarry. This program is available Fridays and Saturdays from June 22nd to September 1st, 11 am to 3 pm. Prepare to hike a 1/2 mile up-hill, gaining about 300 feet in elevation.

Hike one of the two nature trails

The nature trails range from 1.5 to 2.5 miles round trip and are moderately strenuous.

Historic Quarry Trail is a 2.5-mile loop with a 600 feet elevation gain

Nature Trail is a 1.5-mile loop with a 300 feet elevation gain

Enjoy a Ranger Led Program

One thing we enjoyed during our visit was meeting Ranger John. LOL! Yes another Ranger John is out there and he was a great source of knowledge about the park.

The Park Rangers at Fossil Butte offer porch talks which are 15 to 20 minute talks about the park along with timeline talks that guide you along the outdoor timeline that you see as you walk towards the visitor center.

Make sure and check out Fossil Butte on Facebook. The Park Rangers are working hard to bring up to date info and great pictures to their social channels!