Wyoming is a digger’s dream. Whether it’s dinosaur bones you seek, or fossils of a different life form, Wyoming offers all kinds of attractions, from museums to quarry tours to actual digs.
Check out full-size dinosaur skeletons or dig for a brand new find at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis. Here, the excavations are conducted on the Morrison Formation, a huge rock layer that is the source of the country’s most significant dinosaur discoveries. And at the Red Gulch Dinosaur Tracksite in Shell, see fossil footprints from the Middle Jurassic Period.
Fossils of fish, insects, birds, plants and reptiles (including a 13-foot crocodile) are on display at the Fossil Butte National Monument, which holds the largest deposit of freshwater fish fossils in the Western hemisphere. The richest fossil fish deposits are found in limestone layers, about three feet thick, which lie some 100 feet below the top of the butte. Tynsky's Fossil Fish in Kemmerer lets visitors dig for fish and other fossils.
In some cases, visitors can keep their finds, as long as they’re not rare. Dig programs are most often offered in the summer, and some sites offer kids’ digs.
You might also want to visit a Late-Prehistoric Plains Indians' bison trap between Sundance and Beulah. The Vore Buffalo Jump features enormous quantities of bone and stone artifacts that are perfectly preserved in discrete, precisely datable layers held in place within a natural bowl. The site is open to visitors during the summer. It is excavated by a team from the University of Wyoming for two weeks (usually in early July) and you can watch the archaeologists at work.
Although you won't find Butch Cassidy sneaking out a saloon's back door (like he used to in Baggs) or an innkeeper poisoning patrons with arsenic to steal their gold (like Polly Bartlett in the mining town of South Pass City), Wyoming's bars and saloons are still full of the Wild West – not to mention modern-day quirkiness and characters. Follow this three-day driving itinerary to experience some of the state's most interesting places to saddle up (and I mean that literally if we're talking about The Million Dollar Cowboy Bar in Jackson) and grab a cold one or just gawk at these Wyoming watering-hole wonders. read more
Laramie Peak, at 10,272 feet, the highest point in the Laramie Mountains, looms on the horizon and became an important landmark to westward emigrants on the Oregon Trail. A 5.5-mile trail up Laramie Peak is a steep climb, rewarded by a panoramic view at the top. read more
