We have discovered during years of travel to America’s national parks that many of our most enjoyable visits have occurred at some of the smallest and least-visited units. It is a pleasant experience to visit a park where crowds are sparse, quiet is the norm, and National Park Service employees have time to engage in leisurely discussions. Similar experiences tend to be rare luxuries in large, popular national parks.

A Return To Fossil Butte National Monument

These thoughts came to mind following a stop at Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming during a recent trip through Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon. It had been five years since our last visit to Fossil Butte, and we were looking forward to spending more time at a place that had impressed us during a 2010 stop.

Traveling with two friends, we were four of approximately 100 individuals who were likely to visit the monument on this Thursday in late July. During the previous month, 3,534 people visited the 8,200-acre monument situated in a remote and starkly beautiful location in the southwestern corner of the state. This compares with nearly a million visitors to Yellowstone during the same month. Fossil Butte welcomed 16,633 visitors during all of 2014.

One of the nice additions to the monument following our previous visit is a timeline along the railing that begins near the parking lot and extends around the deck of the visitor center. The calendar begins 4.567 billion years ago and ends at the present day on the building’s rear balcony. Small plaques spaced along the railing each list one or more major events that took place during the represented time period. Events noted on plaques along the railing include the extinction of a species of animal or plant, along with major geological events such as mountain building.

As we departed the visitor center, two young boys accompanied by their parents were working their way along the railing with occasional stops to discuss an animal or event of a particular era. This interesting addition to the monument was the brainchild of Fossil Butte paleontologist, Arvid Aase, who also wrote the grant request that funded the project.

A Short History Of Fossil Butte

Fossil Butte was established as a national monument in 1972 to protect the area’s abundance of fossils. Over 50 million years ago the land in this corner of present-day Wyoming, plus small sections of southeastern Idaho and northeastern Utah, were covered by a lake 60 miles long and 40 miles wide. The lake, now called Fossil Lake, formed in a huge basin created during the uplift of the Rocky Mountains.

All of the fossils on display in the entrance case at the visitor center are authentic/David and Kay Scott

The consistency of soil that was once at the bottom of the lake, combined with minerals in the water, were a perfect recipe for preserving organic material on the lake bottom. The result is an abundance of some of the most complete fossils found anywhere in the world.

Many life forms existed during this era, including mammals, birds, fish, and trees, with several species changing or becoming extinct. It is only because of the well-preserved fossils discovered in the Fossil Butte area that scientists know these life forms existed. The majority of the fossils are fish, more than 20 different kinds; but fossils of crocodiles, birds, bats, spiders, insects, primates, and small horses have also been discovered, along with plants that include ferns, palms, spruce and fir trees.

What’s At The Monument

During our visit to Fossil Butte, we spent most of our time browsing exhibits in the modernistic visitor center that could well have been designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The partially underground building is a good fit for the park’s rugged terrain and, from a distance, difficult to distinguish from the surrounding landscape.

Fish fossils are mounted in a large display case just inside the visitor center’s entrance. Due to their completeness of the fossils, we initially assumed the exhibit housed reproductions, but learned from seasonal Ranger Nicholas Goodman the display includes only authentic fossils. Several fossils included in other visitor center displays, such as that of a 13-foot crocodile, are replicas, with the actual fossils being in museums.

Exhibits inside the visitor center help you understand how the fossils came to be in this location/David and Kay Scott

Two short videos shown in a small room off the main exhibit area explain the history of the region and demonstrate how fossils are discovered and removed from the quarry. Viewing the videos is a good way to begin a tour of the visitor center and the monument. The visitor center also includes a glass-enclosed work area where a park ranger can demonstrate how limestone is removed from the surface of a fossil.

Outside the visitor center, Fossil Butte’s research quarry is open to visitors from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, mid-June to mid-August. The half-mile hike to the quarry begins at the picnic area and is a strenuous uphill climb, but if you are in good shape, go for it. (Just watch out for the resident skunks!)

For an outstanding view of the basin, take time to drive the 7.5-mile scenic road that leads to the top of an 8,000-foot cliff. The last 4 miles are up a narrow and steep gravel road, but views from along the road and at its terminus are worth the time. While we debated whether to take the rental car on the road, the drive turned out to be one of the highlights of our visit to the monument.

A Good Visit

Visitors to smaller national park areas tend to receive a great deal of personal attention. That was certainly true of our visit to Fossil Butte. As we were wandering through the exhibit, Ranger Goodman approached and asked if we would be interested in watching him uncover a fossil from a piece of limestone. At the time it appeared that the two of us, along with two friends, were the only visitors other than Park Service staff in the building. The ranger then walked into his small workshop and described each step as he slowly and meticulously went about his task of fossil preparation.

Before departing the visitor center, we stopped to talk with Marcia Fagnant, the park’s chief naturalist. Ranger Fagnant is now in her 27th year at Fossil Butte and a wealth of information on virtually any topic dealing with the monument. She discussed the timeline that had been placed on the visitor center railing, and how she enjoyed living and working in this part of Wyoming.

It turned out to be an upbeat conversation to end a pleasant visit to another of the many small and often overlooked units administered by the National Park Service.

Traveler postscript: The following video was produced during a July 2014 visit to the monument by Traveler editors Kurt Repanshek and Patrick Cone. It provides an overview of what you'll see during a visit.