Our Fossil Discoveries

These are some of the pieces of slate that we found along side the road during our last day of exploration. We brought them home to see if they might hold any treasure.
This one has some type of paw print. I can't tell if it's old or just something "recently" made by an animal with pads on its foot.
Many of the pieces have splits in them and might contain some type of fossil inside. Gently prying open one of the stones.
Hmmm, this might be something inside this one.
This is what the same piece looks like with a negative image.
The following two pictures are of leaves that were fossilized.
This is the first piece of shale I saw riding down the road. The brown mark/design on it caught my attention. I thought it was just a piece of regular shale with brown stain. After bringing it home, I discovered that it is painted a white color and the brown mark is an intentional mark.

The top part of the piece has also been painted with the same brown color as the mark on the front side.

When this piece was opened up (before I realized it was a painted piece), this is what was inside. It looks like a flower and/or flower buds in the next four pictures.

Arminto - The Ghost Town

All I know about Arminto is this...The town was named after Manuel Armentam who owned the “Jack Pot” ranch which was near the station of the railroad. The railway company eventually changed the spelling.

It's now a ghost town with only a couple of families living there. Notice the old house below with the neglected curtain hanging in the window. The whole town basically looked like this.

Joe and I ate our picnic lunch in the driveway heading to this old abandoned log cabin. This was a good sized one - must have had lots of children.

About the South Big Horn/Red Wall Scenic Backway

The South Big Horn/Red Wall Scenic Backway is a horseshoeshaped, 102-mile route that explores the southern end of the Big Horn Mountain Range in central Wyoming west of Casper and east of Shoshoni.

Red Wall retraces the original trail cattle and sheep ranchers used to move their livestock into and out of high country grazing lands. Today, the road is still primarily used for ranch activities. There are no towns, stores, gas stations or telephones along the way.

The South Big Horn/Red Wall Scenic Backway is mostly a gravel road, passable for most high-clearance vehicles in the summer and fall. However, if the roads are wet or if rain is threatening, automobiles are not advised because the roads can quickly become muddy and very slick.

About the area—The South Big Horn/Red Wall Scenic Backway offers some of Wyoming’s most appealing features: pioneer history, modern ranching, and restful solitude. Travelers along the Backway may see sheep attended by herders with the same views out their sheep-wagon doorways that the pioneers enjoyed decades ago. They will also seldom see others along the road—with the
exception of an occasional rancher or sheepherder. This isolation is inviting for people who want to leave the modern world far behind and explore the area’s beauty in solitude.

Rough Lock Hill

The landscape begins to change dramatically as the red mesas begin to rise out of the prairie. The Red Wall is a long northwest-to-southeast escarpment of red sandstone and shale. Not far to the north of here famous western outlaw Butch Cassidy once hid out with his Hole-in-the-Wall gang.

At the base of the long hill is Buffalo Creek Valley. Nearby, Rough Lock Hill is marked and described by a BLM interpretive sign. Pioneers traveling in horse or oxen-pulled wagons descended this slope by locking their wheels and sliding down the hill into the grassy valley below. This spot is impressive and the isolation is as complete as any site in the state.

That is the description given on brochures and at the interpretive sites. I, however, have my own description of this place...

I have seen numerous lovely, glorious, awesome, spectacular sites in my life and many more since our move here to Wyoming. However, I can't remember the last time a sight put goosebumps on my skin. I got a big case yesterday at Rough Lock Hill. (The last time was with Corey when we were at the top of a Nebraska hillside which had a pioneer grave overlooking the Platte River and the wind blowing gently). Some parts of the world sometimes seem so surreal as though God put something extra into what we see in the most out-of-the-way spots.

While driving down the gravel road I spied a sign, backed up and saw "Rough Lock Hill". It's not a well-traveled road and I was keeping my fingers crossed we wouldn't get the car stuck. We didn't and I drove the car as far in as possible. When we exited the car and walked up a slow rise, we were treated with an absolutely incredible sight. This is the sight that made me burst out into goosebumps.

The attached pictures will not do justice to what we saw though. Looking below us we saw a beautiful green meadow surrounded by high red cliffs. That sounds like a very lame description so you'll just have to take my word for it or see it yourself sometime. Keep in mind that the edge of the cliff dropped several hundred feet to the bottom. You might starve to death before you hit.


A “rough lock” was done simply by placing a pole through the spokes on the wagon wheels and locking them into place to “skid” the load down the hill or mountain in this case.

Southway Bighorn/Redway Backway Pics

Open Range Means "Driver Beware"!

So we took the scenic backway yesterday. It started out as a moderately well-paved road that vaguely resembled a patchwork quilt done in various shades of black and grey. This road lasted for awhile before turning into a white gravel road. It wouldn't have lasted as a paved road as long if we didn't have to stop frequently for speed bumps in the road. These are not your normal speed bumps. These were walking, breathing and live speed bumps that came in the form of cows, antelope and horses. And you better slow down since you wouldn't know which way the animal might run - into you or away from you.

There are signs that warn you periodically saying "Open Range" which means there ain't no fences around these parts to keep the animals penned.

These are some pictures of some of the animals that were in the middle of the road that eventually moved to the side of the road.

Our most exciting encounter came when we were driving down a red gravel road and saw five horses standing at the cattle guard by a fence. As I was slowly approaching the gate, one of the horses walked to the middle of the road (pic. 2). Then as I inched my way forward, the horse decided to move to the side of the road (pic. 3). The horse then decided to walk to the side of the car and try to get acquainted with Joe.

Before I knew it, all five horses had come down and surrounded the car. They started licking the windshield, the hood and Joe's hand. These were LARGE horses. I had visions of one of them climbing on the hood of the car. Try explaining that one to GEICO. I finally decided it was time to saddle up and leave when they discovered the button on the hood that shoots out my windshield washer fluid.Then there were the cows...

518 Miles

Since we'd been on the go so much for the past several weeks, I needed, wanted and had to stay home on Friday just so I could get control of the house before heading out again. And I needed, wanted and desired some sleep in time with no particular time to roll out of bed.

So we stayed home on Friday and "cleaned our room" before we could go out and have a good time. Saturday morning came, after sleeping in a little, and I got up, made our customary picnic sandwiches and packed our chips and drinks and off we went once again.

We were heading towards a very small spot in the road called Arminto. We had been told we could find fossils here. About 15 miles from Casper, I spotted a sign for the South Bighorn/Redway National Back County Byway out of the corner of my eye. That sounded interesting and so off we went and began our approximately 100-mile, mostly gravel byway though remote open range with cows and horses and pronghorn antelope standing in the roads. Did I say remote? 5 vehicles in 3 hours!

This interpretive sign showed the trail as well as warnings for sufficient fuel and water and the need for high-clearance vehicles in places. We had a full tank of gas, lots of food and water, but no high clearance vehicle but decided that since it had not rained for awhile, we might be fine. Hey, if we had to turn around, we'd turn around and come back. Fortunately we didn't have to do so.

I will admit after almost stranding ourselves in the Utah desert last week, I was a tiny bit apprehensive about taking off on a 100+ very remote drive. But I'm so glad we did! It was fantastic. A must see when we have out of town company who wants a real adventure.

About midway along the horseshoe-shaped byway on Red Wall/Roughlock Hill, we saw where early pioneers maneuvered down a steep, rocky slope by locking their wagon wheels and sliding.

Some of the fantastic views we saw...
By the way...did I mention how remote it was?!?!?!? So for less than a half of tank of gas, some lunch meat and bread, we had a fantastic time while staying in our same county and a few miles from home.