Walt Longmire, is that you???

Today’s adventures began in the sleepy little town of DuBois, Wyoming, population 960.  It’s located right outside the Wind River Indian Reservation between the Absaroka and Wind Mountain ranges .

Fun fact: the original residents of the town wanted to name the town “Never Sweat”, but the post office rejected the name.  In response, the townspeople rejected the French pronunciation and so the name of the town is pronounced DEW-boys.

While the people are few and far between, the livestock is abundant.  Cattle ranches surround the area in the Painted Hills and the National Bighorn Sheep Center also falls within the city limits.  If you want to visit a guest ranch (think City Slickers), this is the place to be.  

Though tiny, the town has its charms.  A general store, patronized by Butch Cassidy, a few steakhouses and restaurants,  wooden boardwalks, curiosity shops, the largest Jackalope exhibit in the country (Jackalope are mythical antelope/rabbit animals) art galleries and various shops selling sundries are  just a few of the sights to see in the downtown area. Rob and I were fortunate to have time for an early morning walk through the quiet street, making our way to Ace Hardware (run by three women – yay!) and The Perch Coffee Shop, the cutest artsy little cafe.  

In the warmer months, the population of Dubois increases as artists and writers hunker down in the area, obviously inspired by the rich landscapes and beautiful climate. 

We half expected to see Walt Longmire emerging from one of the buildings downtown or the local bar.  The Cowboy Cafe is no Red Pony Bar and Continual Soiree, but it comes pretty close.

We left Dubois with intentions to return when we can stay a few days and get into the hills to do some exploring on ATVs (street legal here – and you see lots of folks riding around town on them), or side-by-sides.  Next stop, Thermopolis.

Thermopolis (it took me a week to figure out why this sounded familiar… Mia Thermopolis!  The character from the Princess Diaries) is a bit larger than Dubois and is the home of the Wyoming Dinosaur Center.  There are around 175 active dig sites and we headed up the mountain in a van with two paleontology interns for a three-hour dig at a sauropod site.  Pro tip: better not to look over the edge of the ravine while bouncing along in a 12-passenger van.  Yikes!

Mick and Jackson gave each pair of “bucket buddies” the tools we needed to actively dig on site: a small broom and dustpan, a soft-bristle paintbrush, and an oyster knife.  They also told us how to identify dinosaur bones from rock.  Apparently, dinosaur bones are BLACK.  Mind blown.  Also, you have to be very careful if you find one since they are easy t damage and they need to mark where bones are found in order to record the information for the museum. 

At first we did a LOT of sweeping.  The area is covered by mudstone (essentially, just dried mud) and it crumbles easily when yu sweep it or loosen it with the oyster knife, making a mess.  You have to clean the area frequently as not to accumulate a big pile of rubble.  What you do sweep up needs to be collected in the bucket and heaved over the side of the ravine (this was not my favorite part, mainly because of the incredibly steep ravine we were standing on).

It gets hot up there on the mountain and this activity requires patience and persistence.  Flaking off the bits of mudrock and moving deeper and deeper into the side of the mountain is oddly satisfying. Rob and I were amazed at how persistent the kids were in methodically loosening and sweeping, funny since no one really cleans up after themselves at home.  

Well, three of four kids were actively engaged, while one was politely compliant before tapping out with about 45-minutes left.  She tried.  

Around the two hour mark, I struck bone.  Before my discovery (haha), a few tiny bone chips had been found, but Jackson used his pick ax to loosen the area around the tiny black sliver to reveal a five-inch bone fragment.  He allowed me to use my tools to try to remove more mudrock from around it (this seemed like an inappropriate amount of responsibility), and finally the bone popped out.

The fragment was covered in a watered down superglue to preserve it, given a number and packed up to take to the museum for cataloging.  I am now a paleontologist and will be adding that to my LinkedIn profile.

Other discoveries included some gastric stones that dinosaurs ate to help them digest their food, a kind of “young” coal, and lots of little bone fragments that the kids were allowed to take home.  Dusty and happy, we loaded back up into the van and headed into Thermopolis for food.

Dinosaur digging is hard work and we were starving.  On the recommendation of the paleontology interns, we ended up at the One-Eyed Buffalo, a local brewery and wolfed down an early supper before packing up Kevin and driving two and a half hours to a KOA Journey in Douglas, Wyoming.  

This campground is specifically for people passing through, so there are a lot of pull through sites, which was fantastic because we kept the toad hitched.  Ahhh… another day, another adventure.  This is the life!

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”

~Confucius