O give me a home... July 10, 2014

Fossil Butte--The top of the Butte was once at the bottom of Fossil Lake

Today we left Lander, WY and headed toward Salt Lake City via Fossil Butte National Monument. The ride took us through some wide open country where snow fences ran for miles and miles. We passed signs that advised "Antelope entering highway at 55 mph", and thought that the Wyoming

highway department must have a sense of humor. But a Google search showed that, sure enough, antelope can run that fast, and since the road is wide open, an antelope collision was a distinct possibility.

One deserted road led to another, and then through metropolitan Kemmerer (population 2636), out to Fossil Butte. Fossil Butte is a semi-arid landscape of flat-topped buttes and ridges, covered with sagebrush and other desert shrubs and grasses. It's hard to imagine that this was once a sub-tropical climate with a lake teeming with life. The rocks in the butte have provided the evidence that this is the case.

52 million years ago, where the top of the butte is now, was then the bottom of Fossil Lake, then 60 miles long and 40 miles wide. The lake was nestled among mountains in a lush forest. Willows, beeches, oaks, palms, maples and ferns grew around the lake. We learned much from park ranger  John Collins about this place. While the area has drastically changed from that epoch, the rocks in the butte have yielded a remarkable picture of the lush life that existed here then. In the park museum, we saw fossils of fish species that currently live in sub-tropical areas of the world today. These are fossils from 50 million years ago!We spent 2+ hours here, and then pushed on to Salt Lake City.

We stopped to get a few groceries, and then checked into our accommodations for the next 5 nights.
On our return from dinner, we noticed thick smoke billowing from an area not too far away. It turned out that there was a large fire in a 50 foot mulch pile, and high winds were not only making fighting the fire difficult, but also carrying the smoke across the city.