In the morning, we drove up the road to the Fossil Butte National Monument:

 

One of the volunteers demonstrated how to clean a fossil:

 

We then drove to the Warfield Fossil Quarry.  We worked for an hour, and brought home a box full of fish fossils.  The limestone comes out in pieces the size of a pizza box.  The chisel is placed on the edge to create a crack that is used to split the rock edgewise, forming two thinner pizza boxes, hopefully with fossils on the inside.

 

From the fossil dig, we drove to Kemmerer where we replenished our water supply and had lunch.  We then drove south to Green River, entering the Red Desert.  We drove along a gravel road looking for wild horses.  In the distance, Pilot Butte:

 

It had rained, and the RV was quite a mess:

 

There was a sign at some point that said that the land area enclosed by the mountains visible to the North, West, and South is larger than the state of Massachusetts.  Not that that’s saying much.

 

We drove out on Tri-Territory Road 4-17 where we spotted some wild horses:

 

This pronghorn ran in front of our SUV and nearly met his end:

 

We pulled off the road and to set up the RV for the night.  This area of Southwest Wyoming is the largest unfenced area in the US.  We were 10 miles from the nearest paved road, and 15 miles from the nearest people.

 

More wild horses:

 

Eventually we arrived at the Killpecker Dunes, the largest moving dune field in the US.  It’s a popular OHV destination:

 

In the distance, Boar’s Tusk, an eroded volcanic neck:

 

The clouds looked ominous, but so far there wasn’t any rain:

 

Practicing for winter:

 

Next, we headed towards Boar’s Tusk:

 

The RV in the distance.  We were quite alone in the desert:

 

Parts of the “road” out to Boar’s Tusk were really, really bad.  There’s no way the Odyssey would have made it.  Even in the SUV, we bottomed out in a couple spots. 

The clouds were getting really thick, and there was a lot of lightning.  Since we were the highest thing around, we didn’t get out of the car.

 

And then it started to rain.  And pour.  And hail.  The “road” filled with water, quite a bit in spots.  I would get out and do a depth test with a stick to make sure we could cross:

I’d say we broke in the SUV rather nicely:

 

The clouds were spectacular:

We travelled 177 miles today.  This was dispersed camping at it’s finest.  What a great day!