July 19 - Wyoming: Dinosaur Center

The tire shop in Buffalo, WY was fantastic.  They had us back on the road by 9 a.m.!  We headed toward Thermopolis, WY and drove through the Big Horn National Forest.  It was pretty spectacular!

Today was Caden's day.  Like any seven year old boy, he is fascinated with dinosaurs.  Thermopolis is home to the #1 Dinosaur Museum in the U.S., The Wyoming Dinosaur Center.  We have been planning to visit the center for quite awhile, and Caden hasn't stopped talking about it since Christmas.  In fact, our whole trip has been me showing the distance between wherever we were and the Dinosaur Center on the atlas.

The Center is a museum, a working laboratory, and active dig site on 7,000 acres.  In 1990, two geological surveyors found giant rib bones sticking out of a remote hillside.  Their find led to a rich discovery of dinosaur bones and fossils, and the Center was created.

Triceratops, Wyoming State Dinosaur

T-Rex

FOR OUR ALBERTAN FRIENDS:  Albertosaurus -- named for Alberta, Canada; Only Specimen on Display in the World.

Their museum housed lots of great dinosaurs and fossils, including a Supersaurus that was 106 feet long.

After visiting the museum, we went with a paleontologist up to the dig site to see if we could find anything on an afternoon dig.

Our "fancy" paleontologist tools!

We didn't find anything ourselves, but our guide was working on delicately removing a giant femur next to us.  So, it was still very cool!

After about an hour and a half, Josh and Easton decided that they didn't have the patience to be diggers.  We concluded our dig and went fossil hunting.  A nearby hillside was FULL of clamshell and ancient squid fossils called belemnites.  Apparently these arid hills were a sea at some point, the marine fossils erode out of the soil and rock, and they make their slide down the hill.  It's very weird to be on a dry hillside looking for marine fossils between the sagebrush!

After the fossil finding, they took us through the laboratory where paleontologists were cleaning bones that were found on the dig site.  A kind scientist gave each of the kids a piece of the triceratops' head that she was working on. Very Cool!

After the Center, we drove our dusty selves to Wapiti, Wyoming -- about 20 miles west of Cody -- and about 25 miles outside of the east entrance to Yellowstone!

We arrived at our camp planning to make dinner.  However, the lodge had a sign saying they had the best steak and ribs in the West.  So...change of plans!  While we were eating the western winds kicked up to about 60 miles per hour and blew in a cold front.  When we entered the restaurant, it was easily 95F.  When we left, it was 65F.

Wyoming sure does know how to make a (chilly) sunset!

We plan to spend the next three nights at Yellowstone.  We're all looking forward to it!