Fossil Butte National Monument

When I was a kid I loved searching for cool rocks and fossils. Crinoids, geodes, quarts crystals, I was fascinated by whatever I could find. We'd go on vacation and we'd find rocks, minerals and fossils that I'd never seen before... That little kid would have LOVED this place! Fossil Butte National Monument is smack dab in the middle of an ancient lake bed just teeming with fossilized remains of everything! Crocodiles, frogs, birds, fish and bugs.

Even so, we figured we'd stop for an obligatory walk through, nod our heads like Clark Griswold and move on... but this place was so very well curated. The size and scope of the displays were amazing to this old kid! They had a short movie showing the process of searching and mining for these relics of the past that I very much enjoyed.

If they were for sale I would bought a very well preserved specimen of a diplomystus fossil fish... but instead we bought a couple fun t-shirts and moved on to our next stop.Read more