I'm Getting Sediment-all Over You

Through a long driving day, we’ve walked backwards through time. We started the day with a mediocre continental breakfast at the Super 8 in Pocatello, Idaho. Heading southeast into Wyoming, we found ourselves at Fossil Butte National Monument. The butte is the location of the smallest of three great lakes from the Cenozoic period (just after the dinosaurs died out). The sedimentary limestone layers contain some of the most complete and detailed fish, plant and insect fossils that I’ve ever seen. They even include scales, bones and fins. We walked the nature trail that overlooked the valley and saw many signs of animals among the aspens but no fur was to be seen.



Heading south, we grabbed some groceries and fried chicken for lunch and went for a scenic drive overlooking the western rim of Flaming Gorge. When we got to the southern section we saw the crimson color of the canyon walls against the dammed river.




Our next destination was Dinosaur National Monument, straddling the borders of northern Utah and Colorado. We found a campsite at the Green River Campground and made some Arby’s chicken sandwiches for dinner. We went to bed early so that we could explore the park early in the morning.

Since we're still getting up early, we ended up at the visitor center before it opened at 8:30. We chatted with a family from Washington D.C. and jumped on the first bus that pulled up to take the Fossil Quarry Tour. We saw fossils of fish, clams and dinosaurs (from the Jurassic period and earlier) in the rocks but Lisa said that it paled in comparison to the fossils in the closed visitor center which is currently under construction.



We took the auto tour and saw many petroglyphs along the way from the ancient semi-nomadic Fremont people. They mysteriously disappeared around 1200 A.D. and the function of the glyphs is unknown. The pictures included pictures of animals, human shapes and other geometric shapes and patterns.



After a stop and a short hike (with little lizards skittering around) at Josie's historic homestead we headed south into Colorado towards Colorado National Monument and Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park - our destinations for tomorrow.