On the Road Again Day 10 | Fossil Butte
A highlight of a road trip a decade ago was digging for fossils behind the high school in Fossil, Oregon. These days you pay a small fee in exchange for a limited number of fossils. But before 2004, there was unlimited access. We brought home a small container of slabs of shale to investigate, plus some lucky finds: all sorts of leaf fossils.
Since then, we've been bitten by the fossil bug, so stumbling across Fossil Butte National Monument was a thrill. We're headed for fly fishing, but happily took a detour to check it out. There's a great visitor's center and more fossils than I've ever seen in one place. On the heels of seeing the dinosaur bones at Dinosaur National Monument, this was very cool.
There are leaves of all sizes, but there are much more unique fossils here. Like a complete lizard with a curling tail. Snakes. Insects. Turtles. Bats. Flowers. Fish, individuals and schools. My favorite is a fish that died in the act of swallowing another fish. There's even a crocodile.
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