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Fossil Butte
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Wyoming
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What we do know
Inside Fossil Butte National Monument
National Park unit boundary is mapped — agency alerts for it feed this page automatically.
Boundary data
What's missing
No access route mapped
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Fossil Butte
AI-suggested draft · review before you go
No elevation data on file for this trail.
A butte is a hill with steep sides and a flat top. Fossil Butte is named after the fossils that can be found in its top layers of rock. Fossil Butte sits just behind the visitor center and can be seen from the park road. While it appears to be a butte from these locations, it is actually a ridge that extends down along the county road. The Historic Quarry Trail takes you up this side of Fossil Butte nearly to the top.
Wayside: Slump or Debris Flow (Roadside)
~4 min drive
Debris flows are most commonly known as landslides. For slumps, the soil moves slowly as a block, often coming to rest with trees and other plants still growing undisturbed. Use this sign to determine if the hill is an example of a debris flow or a slump.
South Fontenelle
~44 min drive
21 mi · Hard
Spruce Creek
~44 min drive
4.2 mi · Moderate
Devils Hole Lakes
~58 min drive
2.0 mi · Easy
Fossil Birds Exhibit
~3 min drive
The fossil birds exhibit has four different species of birds on display and many pieces of birds including feathers. Fossils of parts of birds are more common than whole birds. Feathers would keep birds afloat as they decayed. The parts would then sink to the bottom of the lak…
Nugent
~38 min drive
28 mi · Hard
Little Bear
~47 min drive
4.7 mi · Moderate
Limber Pine Nature
~1h 5m drive
Easy alpine forest walk through limber pine ecosystem.
Wayside: Erosion (Roadside)
~3 min drive
Erosion has removed a significant amount of lake sediments. Find out how much has been lost at this wayside.
Hams Fork Ridge
~38 min drive
15 mi · Hard
