Overnight in Rawlins

We discovered two new destinations on our drive to Rawlins (about halfway from Bear Lake to Cheyenne).  The first is Fossil Butte National Monument.  We saw these amazing buttes and did not know what we were seeing until we saw the sign pointing us to the Visitors Center.  The buttes were the coasts of an enormous lake 50 MILLION years ago.  The area is filled with fossils and the Visitors Center has displays and videos that help explain the history and discovery.  Fascinating!

Taken at the Visitors Center

Photo does not show all the colors visible in the butte.

We drove over what seemed like miles and miles of boring landscape and then came upon Sweetwater County.   Surrounding the city of Green River were some funky outcroppings - one called Kissing Rocks since they appear to move while you are driving toward them.  Trying to capture any of these rocks on film is a useless exercise since the gasoline and motel logos cover the sightline.  Here is a shot taken before we reached the town.

At the Visitors Center we learned about Flaming Gorge.  It is a long canyon on the border of Wyoming and Idaho that has heavy iron deposits and appears to be on fire in certain light.  We are putting that drive on our list for next visit - the loop to see it all is almost 200 miles.  We did go to the first overlook - magnificent!

Rawlins was an "interesting" city.  Its biggest tourist attraction is a Federal Prison that was built at the turn of the 20th century - beautiful stone structure that looks more like a luxury hotel.  We did not visit, having found it after eating at "The Aspen House", a surprise find with very good food.  One other feature of the city is this rock outcropping - I guess it was easier to build around it than move it!

Tomorrow is Cheyenne!