Standing at the base of Fossil Butte, gazing up 1,000 feet at the rust- and ocher-stained cliffs, with the crackling desert wind rattling sage and tumbleweeds, you’d never guess that eons ago you’d have been looking up from the bottom of a subtropical ocean. Some 50 million years ago, during the Eocene Epoch, millions of fish wriggled across what’s now the sky. With the ebb and flow of millennia, they sifted into the mud and fossilized. Today, visitors join paleontologists during the summer to dig for the ancient remains of fish, insects, turtles, birds, and even bats.
You can also hike (be watchful for rattlesnakes) on two short trails—the 1.5-mile Fossil Lake Trail and the 2.5-mile Quarry Trail. This is also a prime wildlife-viewing area, where you’re likely to see pronghorn, mule deer, white-tailed prairie dogs, and ground squirrels, and you might be lucky enough to spot moose, elk, and beaver as well. A variety of birds are also seen here, including Canada geese, great blue herons, Clark’s nutcrackers, yellow-headed blackbirds, great horned owls, and red-tailed hawks.
