Fossils find fossils

So after a restful night in the cozy cabin we rented, we headed for Fossil Butte National Monument.  Fossil Butte National Monument preserves the best paleontological record of Cenozoic aquatic communities in North America and possibly the world, within the 50-million-year-old Green River Formation. (I got that from Wikipedia).

Which brings us to the main event.  Because the area is so vast, there is a private fossil dig nearby where for a small fee you can chip away for fossils.  The cool thing is, the fossils you find, you get to keep!! Karla and I chipped away at the quarry for about 90 minutes and will be coming home with several 50 million year old fish fossils.  That beats a vacation tee shirt any day! (And yes, Terry, it was my idea to visit the quarry.)

The downside to chipping away in the limestone quarry is that we were covered in dirt/dust and now the inside of Custer is as dirty as the outside. (BTW, Custer has now logged over 7100 miles so far on this trip!).

We were planning to go to Rocky Mt National park but the weather forecast altered our plans and instead we went south.  We are in Utah and will visit Dinosaur National Monument tomorrow.  The drive south was surprisingly beautiful through the dark red canyons of Flaming Gorge.  I'm liking this detour for the weather!