Who knew? As we left Grand Teton National Park and headed south toward Utah, our first overnight was in a small town, Cokeville, WY. The reviews of the stop shared the diner across the street had great milk shakes and to visit the Fossil Butte National Monument. As its Visitors Center closed at 4:30 p.m., we unhooked and the 5 of us headed to the monument (over 30 miles away). What a fantastic place. The monument encompasses 13 square miles of Fossil Lake, which was 1600 square miles. That’s huge! The fossils are over 52 million years old. The National Park Service has over 2,000 fossils on display in the monument from their area, plus many set aside for research. Commercial fossil quarries are found on state and private land outside of the monument if you are interested in digging your own fossils. Oh, and yes, we did walk across to the street to the diner for milkshakes. They were good, but no where near the yumminess of the huckleberry milkshake in Grand Teton.
Our next stop was in Provo, Utah. This was our last “city” stop before arriving at Bryce National Park so we spent time stocking up our pantries and refrigerators, doing laundry, etc. But, little did we know Provo was also a great place for hiking and Murphy was allowed on the trails. Yay! One day, we did a short walk/hike to see Bridal Veil Falls. Greg & Helen continued to hike up to Upper Falls, while Dave wisely rested his ankle. The next day Greg & Helen did a steep climb to Buffalo Peak. Great views!
We just arrived in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah. The first of the “Mighty 5” national parks in this vicinity. Stay tuned as we start exploring the parks with a surprise in store.
Provo was a great re-provisioning stop Brenda, Thinking of our friends impacted by Helene Dave, and I actually got to go on a hike Murphy.