Did you know that 9 miles west of Kemmerer, there’s a rest area with thousands of museum-quality fossilized creatures adorning the walls? That you can ride your bike, or horse, on a stretch of railroad history in the mountains west of Laramie? That the Shirley Basin hosts the highest concentrations of rattlesnakes in the state?
These are just a few of the facts that captured readers’ attention in WyoFile’s most-read Photo Fridays of 2025. Each week, reporters take turns celebrating Wyoming’s unique attributes in a short essay inspired by a photograph taken in this magnificent state.
Wildlife and wild places dominated Photo Friday in 2025. The one exception was from a wild reporter with wanderlust who bid farewell on his way farther west.
Here are our top 10.
10. Paleontological pee stop: Fossil Butte is more than just a Wyoming rest area
by Dustin Bleizeffer
Fossil Butte National Monument contains a rest area on a lonely stretch of U.S. Highway 30 about 9 miles west of Kemmerer. While many make a beeline to the restrooms, those with less urgent needs will discover thousands of stone slabs embedded with fossilized creatures. Read more.
9. Casper’s turkeys trapped and turned loose in new rural habitat
by Katie Klingsporn
Wild turkeys can be unruly neighbors. That was part of the motivation behind a Wyoming Game and Fish Department project that trapped 137 urban birds around Casper last winter and relocated them to rural sites in Natrona and Converse counties. Read more.
8. Medicine Bow Rail Trail: 21-mile stretch of solitude
by Maggie Mullen
Built by immigrants, the Hahn’s Peak and Pacific Railway was the highest standard gauge railroad in the country when it was constructed in the 1900s. Today, it’s a quiet 21-mile route perfect for a springtime, non-motorized adventure. Read more.
7. Strange wildlife encounters of the western Wyoming ranch kind
by Mike Koshmrl
Over six months, woolgrower, writer and photographer Cat Urbigkit documented furry and feathered sojourners not normally found near her Sublette County ranch. Read more.
6. An appreciation for antlers
by Mark Gocke
As summer turns to fall, deer, elk and moose shed the velvet from their antlers. Photographer Mark Gocke documented the transition in northwestern Wyoming. Read more.
5. A mammoth discovery in the Bighorn Basin
by Maggie Mullen
Since researchers restarted excavations at Natural Trap Cave in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin in 2014, they’ve unearthed the bones of all sorts of prehistoric mammals. This summer, they made a mammoth discovery. Read more.
4. A Wyoming goodbye, again
by Andrew Graham
Saying farewell to Wyoming is a hard thing. WyoFile reporter Andrew Graham bemoaned on his second time doing so. Read more.
3. Migrating elephants amble into Jackson Hole
by Rebecca Huntington
A public art installation of Indian elephants stopped in Jackson Hole during its migration across the United States to raise awareness and funding for conservation and coexistence with wild animals. The life-size replicas attracted a herd of visitors. Read more.
2. Forest-dwelling raptor, aka ‘flying mountain lion,’ goes for groceries in the city
by Mike Koshmrl
Goshawks, the largest of the accipiters, are usually found in forests, but when an adult male made a foray into “All the civilization you need” — aka Pinedale — a WyoFile reporter got a picture. An avian biologist speculates the raptor was on the hunt. Read more.
1. Wyoming rattler road trip
by Tennessee Watson
Driving the backroads between Pathfinder Reservoir and the town of Medicine Bow, a WyoFile reporter and his editor experienced two near misses with prairie rattlers within a few miles. “That particular area of Wyoming is the highest density of rattlesnakes anywhere in the state,” one herpetologist said. Read more.