Reviews of Fossil Butte National Monument (Tourist Attraction)

Steve Gieser

The area surrounding the Fossil Butte National Monument is one of the greatest fossil fish localities in the world. The small visitor center at the National Monument is well designed and packed full of beautiful fossils of the flora and fauna of this region from the Eocene Epoch, roughly 50 million years ago.

Indo Gemstone

Interesting Fossils!

Angie Douglas

I loved all the fossils. Only complaint is some of them were casts and not originals. Great intro movies in the visitor center. Nice hikes and picnicking.

David Loewi

One of my favorites, among the many great National Monuments. Gorgeous scenery, and good science.

Sebastian Holter

Richtig schönes Besucherzentrum, die Park Ranger nehmen sich viel Zeit alles zu erklären.

Steve Hand

Had fun hard work

Artistic Pigs

Really well put together display of fossils.

Arlen Noble

Alvis, very nice ranger, great with kids.

thomas albert

Was hoping for more interaction. Still really cool.

Ted Lapis

Fossil Butte is world famous for Wyoming Fish Fossils. The band of rock so high in elevators gives pause to those who were taught about a 7,000 year history of Earth. When we were in Scotland, a man had to show us his Wyoming fish. We were embarrassed that we hadn't gone, so we went! Beautiful area, well worth going out of your way to see!

Scott Lakeside

Fossil Butte is, as the name suggests, a fossil-oriented park. It is known for its plant and animal fossils from just after the dinosaurs died out, in the Palaeocene and Eocene epochs, especially its well-preserved and abudant fish. One of the most eye-opening features of the park is its geological timescale. Starting about 2/3 of a mile from the visitor center on Chicken Creek Road, you start seeing signs about events that have occurred, starting with the formation of Earth 4.567 billion years ago. Using a scale of 9” = 1 million years, you see more events as you drive to the visitor center. Once you park at the visitor center, you see more events, such as the extinction of dinosaurs, as you walk to the entrance. Arriving near the entrance door brings you to the present time on the timescale. Inside the visitor center is one of the best museum-like displays of fossils in all of the fossil-oriented parks. It was somewhat busy the day we arrived, a warm midday in July, but not enough to ruin the experience. An unexpected treat was to be able to watch a park employee working to reveal a new fish fossil from the rock containing it. As he was working under a microscope, what he was seeing was displayed on a TV screen above him. If you’re into hiking, the sagebrush and butte environment of the park is one where you can walk in beautiful solitude.

Mark Boyer

Unfortunately, tube scenic drive was not open. We spent a couple of hours speaking with a geologist. Amazing amount of information. Visitors center is small but well filled. Small gift shop inside. Beautiful views of the surrounding area from the visitor center.

Kevin Crawford

Excellent fossil display of area. World class.

Kevin Runia

Fun. Fun. With our 5 year old grand daughter.

Terry Ashton

Interesting and very well done museum. Friendly and knowledgeable staff.

Nancy Robinson

Wonderful display of fossils from local digs as well as a repository for fossils globally. Located in a remote corner of SW Wyoming.

Bryce Caster

This is where fossils are found! Make sure to check out the visitor center's impressive display and hike on the Historic Quarry Trail.

Daniel Soulia

If you're ever in southwestern Wyoming, and are even remotely interested in geology and/or fossils, you HAVE to come here. It's an amazing place!

Steve Jennings

Beautiful site with informative educational displays on the formation of the area, active fossil preparation view window (pictured) as well as interpretive displays along with a lovely walk through the hills.

Joyce Drakeford

If you are ever in this area you HAVE to go by and see this place. Coming from the East Coast I've never seen anything like this place. We had AWD and took the drive up to the top of the mountains. Outstanding beauty. Wildlife everywhere. The visitor center had me drooling to hunt fossils! The preparator and the clerk were incredibly friendly and knowledgeable.

Richard I. Osland

Interesting to drive through the park, but the Visitors Center with the display of fossils along with the history of fossil hunting in the area was the best. Very helpful & informative staff person available to answer questions.

Mohammad Elahinia

On the list

Robert Stolting

Cool and remote monument. Really liked seeing the history of the ancient lake that was once here.

Kate Miller

Interesting with great fossils and activities.

Kent Slovernick

Great place to see alot of fossils and wildlife

Dawn Garcia

Fabulous! Great trails and infrastructure, educational graphics really nice. The visitor center is great, full of fossils and info. At the nature trail was geoscientist to describe the fossil harvesting process, and found a fish fossil while I was there.

Devany Zortman

Great little hiking path. It is a 2.5 mile loop. A little bit of up Hill but I would say it's in the High beginner range. The view is great and it's just right off the highway if you're looking for quick little get off and walk around on a road trip. There are public restrooms at the beginning of trial.

Patience Gaydos

There's not much here, but the rangers in the visitors center are friendly and helpful.

janeal kitchens

Neat place.

Debra Dono

Totally awesome museum. Many fossils of many aquatic species. A whole ecosystem actually. There's a pregnant ray in this picture. If you like fossils this is the place for you. Learning this area was tropical and is now desert is amazing. Great staff.

Roger Kramer

Great place, lots of fossils

Suzanne Miner

We enjoyed the exhibit and the building is really nice. Friendly and helpful rangers.

Chelair Hail

Didn't get to spend much time here. It is beautiful when it's this green however comes with a bug price during this time of year. An amazing amount of information to be had with the demographic.

Chester Schlosser

Cool museum and great hiking

Kit Campbell

A lot of really excellent fossils, and the visitor center has a ton of interesting information. We stopped by on a whim while driving by and were quite pleased with the experience.

Paul Ricketts

This place is fantastic! Stop here for sure!

Aaron James

Nice, but not nearly exciting as a Yellowstone or Flaming George or Dinosaur National Monument. Educational.

David Collyer

Excellent presentation and display, not real busy and worth the stop...

Kaylla Cantilina

Great exhibits and friendly Rangers ready to answer all of your questions. Some of the best preserved and rarest fossils are found here. Very cool!

jackie holler

Very interesting! Grandsons enjoyed very much!

Cannon Hamaker

Awesome little stop with a really cool exhibit on the timeline of the earth.

Gary Griffith

Small but wonderfully informative exhibit of fossils coupled with knowledgeable staff. Well worth a stop.

Kim Bacon

Very nice exhibits in vistor center. Great displays along road into and along path that were laid out very nice explaining geology.

Matthew Davidson

Amazing collection of fish fossils

Chris David

Awesome place to feel like your stepping through time

Zhou YU

We have been here twice already. It was a short stop on our way back from Yellowstone and Teton. It was also for the kids who wanted to learn and to get a junior ranger badge. Wish we could have stayed longer. We were not disappointed. The park rangers were knowledgeable and informative. There were very few visitors so that park is practically yours. There are a couple of hiking trails and some picnic places. The park has fossils from Eocene Epoch (56 to 34 million years ago). In the scheme of things, they are not too old. They are much younger than the dinosaur era. You can see most of the stuff in a similar form today.

Brian Cole

Have a nice collection of fossils. Location is close to the main road.

Bill Hart

Great scenery and exhibits

James Maxwell

Facinating

Apes

The back door of the river is beautiful! Went there by accident and it was amazing.

Chuck Powell

The best part about this monument is the timeline. When you first pull onto the park grounds signs will tell you when the earths ozone was created at "X" number billion years ago. Every 8 inches is a million years. Then you get to the walkway a mile later to find that it continues around the building. It lists the creation of dinosaurs, plants and even great extinctions until the very end at one million, man. It shows a very large representation on why mother nature always wins. Because she deserves it. I talked to ranger John for about half an hour and he knows his stuff. The small exhibit was neat as well.

Joshua Watts

One of the coolest places in Wyoming

Kat Buell

Nice picnic areas, hikes, fantastic displays & engaging personnel.

Gail Bellenger

Amazing array of fossils!

Jahan Vafaei

Interesting place to visit

Owen Blair

It was a wonderful place to visit. Lots to do and learn!

Tommy Cross

Beautiful uncrowded jewel. Wonderful hiking trails and a fun mountain driving trail with steep grades.

Mike George

Great place

Kevin Redding

Drive too the top at sunset beautiful

Ed Anady

Great 3 mile hike to awesome vistas and wild flowers

Seth Olson

We hiked the old quarry trail, just stunning landscape and views. An easy 2.5 mile hike, absolutely worth it, and easy to spot fossils in the rock. The visitor centers fossil displays are meticulous, and the exhibits do a great job illustrating the millions of years of history.

nick farris

I went here with my wife and 3 kids. They all had a blast. The visiters center was amazing. The park staff was extremely helpful and patient with all the kids running around. They have free maps of the areas and we'll maintained restrooms. My kids are 3,4 and 5 and did one of the hikes here with ease. I would recommend this place to anyone. One of the first things we saw was a moose too. So that was a plus.

Sherita High

Wonderful visitors center. Beautiful displays. Hiked the Spur quarry trail, gorgeous.

Sindrone

Great place! The fossil displays will leave you gobsmacked! If you are in the area you must stop in!

Gary Brookshire

Great fossil collection at the museum

peter scherer

Great visitor center, very helpful park rangers!

Stephanie Dar

Pretty, not the best place for running but worth a visit if you're driving through.

Tiffany Brown

Beautiful and Peaceful

April Armstrong

And unexpected stop that I am glad we did not miss. Great collection of fossils, and displays. Can't wait to return and explore more

Justin Arndt

This is a very fun, small National Monument that is off the beaten track. Their museum is extraordinary, full of skeletons of every shape and size. There is also a great timeline from the entrance to the visitor center that really puts the lifespan of the earth in perspective. There are basically no people here, you the place is all yours! It also doesn't cost anything for admission, and the Junior Ranger Program is a really fun one! I would seriously suggest you visit this awesome place!

Scott Burciaga

Great place to learn about fossils and amazing local views.

Tyler Smith

Great way to break up a long drive through Wyoming. The visitor center is very small and features original fossils along with lots of casts and replicas. This place is best suited for those with an interest in learning about geology.

Kyle G

I was on a road trip in October, basically hitting as many National Parks and monuments as I felt like and decided to take the detour to Fossil Butte on my way to the Rockies from Grand Teton. It ended up being my favorite stop! The timeline on the way puts things into perspective and the visitor's center is gorgeous with an insane collection of fossils and some really interesting facts about the area. The ranger I talked to was informative and cool as well. I liked the scenic drive too! It's a surprisingly long drive up into the hills where you can overlook the surrounding area and hear nothing but the wind. It's so peaceful. Be warned however; the road becomes unpaved rather early in the drive and is washed out in areas, making for an exciting and bumpy ride. While I was there, it had snowed early in the morning and so I essentially went mudding for a little while. My car looked ridiculous afterward but it was totally worth it. Definitely stop here if you're passing by.

Kevin Cannon

You need to visit at least once and take your school aged kids.

Michael Vigliotti

This place is a bit out of the way, very nice visitor center, we did the small nature walk, it was a bit more up hill then we expected and we did not see any wildlife but that could just be bad timing. Great landscape views though.

Dan Babineau

neat, but even cooler is area attractions that let you did for your own fossils

William Massaro

The visitor center was nice. It was a good stopping point between Yellowstone and Salt Lake City.

Hannah Wallace

Our favorite National Park

Dylan M

Good little stop on the road to learn some geologic history. Activities for kids available, and many fossils on display. Free!

Jason Mendenhall

Ask if the archeological team is digging. Fun to see what they have found.

Roger Blain

Most excellent visitor center with too many fossils to count. I especially enjoyed watching NPS personnel working in the fossil preparation lab. You can talk to them through a window and also view a monitor feed of what they are working on under the microsope.

bill sylvis

Great place and knowledgeable stafg

Jonathan Wagner

Awesome place to visit! Visitor Center is excellent and clean. Informative and lots of trails around this rugged landscape!

Joe Donaldson

Literally in the middle of no where. However, it's worth the drive to find it and check out one of the coolest collection of fossils I've seen. The rangers were also very nice and informative when talking about the collection and the surrounding area. They also gave me several tips on other places to go exploring while I was there.

Shawn Shuler

What a hidden gem! The facilities, rangers, displays and information are first rate. It starts with the interesting way of presenting the history of the Earth along the entrance road. There is even a ranger working with fossils in the visitors center. Really cool and the hikes were great, too. The better known Wyoming National Parks are awesome but it was great to not have to fight huge crowds. The towns in the area are filled with really friendly people, too. Definitely recommended.

Pat Glenn

Breathtaking

TheCrawdaddy029

Its dirt and grass, get over it

Angela Shanken

Beautiful scenery! Will visit again when we can spend more time!

Cynthia P

One of the largest fossil deposits in the United States. You’ll see mainly fish and sea going creatures but others as well. There is actual work being done on collecting and preserving the fossils. Park Ranger Kyle did a great job on explaining the process. Intern Caroline works the dig on Friday and Saturdays and does a wonderful job of explaining what she was doing. The fossils on display are amazing and worth the trip. There is also a scenic drive you can take (no RVs). On Friday and Saturdays you can walk to the dig (less than a mile one way-not to difficult, bring bug spray). This was an unplanned stop for us and one we consider a must see.

Matt Stone

You know those crazy fish fossils at the rock shop that seem too good to be true? They’re true and they can’t me from here! It’s a little out of the way but it’s beautiful and totally worth the trip to the visitors center!

Jim Corbet

Awesome hiking great visitor center

Armando Victoria

Not crowded at all. Staff gave us the star treatment - helped the kids have a great time. We all want to go back!

Roxy Durkee

Great place to hike and learn about the earths history! Plus its free!

Shannon Stanley

It was a little dissapointing. No real idea of where the fossils are lot of area's you can't go. Ok for a day of hiking but not very pretty.

David Thiederman

We decided to visit after reading 20+ reviews and discovered more than expected. Fossils at 7000+ feet elevation including bugs, leaves, fish, turtles, alligators (13' long), etc. What a professional display and enjoyable video presentation (13 minutes). There are hiking trails with picnic tables and barbaque grills as well. This stop is worth going out of your way; perhaps even a destination since there are local privately owned places to dig your own fossils.

Vicky Mann

Great place for everyone learned alot and sixty

Aaron Carter

No fees. Very beautiful. Visitor center is very educational. Bring water and sunblock.

Francisco Silva

This place is amazing, it takes me breath away

derrick wyle

Nice museum, fresh water station, good wifi.

Stephanie Whisler

Beautiful place to hike. Visitors center has a nice display of fossils, educational movie, demonstrations, and informational guide by staff. Great place to spend the day (or a few). The picnic area was also nice and has a hiking trail to enjoy after lunch

Greg Kirk

Very informative. Nice interaction with the kids.

Wade Smith

They have a huge room that show a ton of real dinosaur fossils some you can touch! Also huge petroglyphs and amazing views!

James Jukes

Awesome stop for a lesson on fossils! Great, free exhibit that will be interesting to the young and old

MCG CSP

Nice if you love fossils

Ann Hsiao

One of the great small gems of Wyoming. You can often get this place all to yourself.

Ernie Johnson

Nice trail with interpretative signs and viewing benches along the way. Definitely worth checking out

Kristen Hall-Geisler

Beautiful! Educational! Stopped on a whim and loved it.

Jeremy Jacobsen

Very educational and picturesque.

Dabbs McInnis

Great place

Chris Clore

Well worth the stop.

N Alwais

Secluded

Nathan Bays

Wonderful, not very big, yet loaded with content. Camping is very nice and very private if you're able to reach it. (High clearance vehicles only for the camping) Dont have any good pics of the place on my phone, sadly

steve rohaley

Nice hike and really cool fossils

Emily Spencer

A fun stop for a lunch break if your in the area. Not to much to do

Bill Dinger

A newer visitor center with activities all day long, and expansive grounds for hiking. The monument is in the center of a dried up lake bed with a rich fossil history

Tyler Hagan

Excellent geology! Even for amateurs! Awesome for kids too

Bryan P

Cool little spot in the middle of nowhere. Visitors center is nice with knowledgeable staff

Bill Price

Wonderful history and staff goes anove and beyond to help

ArSha Ramiya

Hidden gems

Marsha Williams

The Quarry Trail was fun! Worth the climb.

Cody Simonsen

Great facilities. Excellent way to learn about the area. Staff was engaging, informative, and helpful.

Branigan Faurschou

It's an okay stop. Really lacking in material though, and information. It is free to enter so it's not too bad.

Alaina Swartzlander

Very neat place.

david cencak

Interesting fossils and nice scenic hikes

M. Q. Smith

As the name suggests, Fossil Butte NM is all about fossils, more specifically, local Wyoming fish fossils. Essentially, most of what is here (unless your car can navigate the possible perils of a long dirt road) is the visitor center. There is a lot to learn here. Most impressive was the geologic time line that started in the parking lot, time traveling along with you, as you walk towards the building entrance. Inside, there is much see. These fossils made Wyoming famous as fish fossils were found high above in elevation on the top layers of the Butte within the park. If one has the time or a vehicle capable, you can take a drive up to a fossil site on the Butte. If in the area passing by, it is certainly worth a visit especially if interested in our country's geologic history.

Leo Sullivan

As you approach along the road towards the Visitor Center buildings, take note of the low and unobtrusive signs on the right! These subtle signposts represent dates on an enormous calendar, or ‘timeline’, of all previous activity on planet Earth. Both our mechanical Geology, as well as Gaia’s biology. Together it shows the complete scientist’s story of all our material resources. Everything under the sky.