Updated October 27, 2017
My kids are obsessed with rocks. Last spring after I watched an entire bucket of rocks from our driveway make their way into my children’s bedroom collections, I decided it was time we venture out and get them some rocks that are much cooler then the ones they’ve been finding. What kid wouldn’t want to find 40-50 million year old fish fossils in Kemmerer, Wyoming or geodes created 6-8 million years ago near Dugway, Utah on the Pony Express Trail and extinct hard shelled creatures called trilobites from 520 million years ago near Delta, Utah? Sounds like a blast to me!  Last summer we took three big rock trips that you can read about below, then scroll down to the bottom of this post to see trips we’d like to take. Enjoy!

Here is a list of cool things we can’t wait to check out in and around Utah:

• Dig For A Day Program at The Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, Wyoming.
• The Fossil Field Program in Natural History State Park looks like a blast. This week long program near Vernal, Utah happens annually in June for up to 15 people ages 16+ allowing participants to work along side experts in the field of paleontology to collect specimens for the museum. How fun would that be?!?
• Although we’ve been to U-Dig and loved it, we’re thinking about checking out A New Dig which is a nearby trilobite quarry opened by a former U-Dig employee outside of Delta, Utah.
• The Florissant Fossil Quarry is located 36 miles west of Colorado Springs at 8,500′ and looks like a great place to find 35 million year old plants, bugs and bird fossils.
• The Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita, Colorado (21 miles from Grand Junction) has several programs throughout the summer including 1/2 and full day digs for ages 7+ at the Collision Quarry as well as fossil prospecting hikes.
• Hunt for petrified wood near Marble Canyon, Arizona. Please keep in mind that when collecting petrified wood on BLM Land there are rules….”Petrified wood can be collected for personal use — up to 25 pounds each day, plus one piece, but no more than 250 pounds in any calendar year (43 CFR 3622). These materials must be for your personal collection and cannot be sold or traded.”  Click HERE for directions to find petrified wood in northern Arizona.
• BLM Trilobite Quarry 50 miles west of Delta, Utah.
• Celebrate our Geologic Heritage on National Fossil Day, October 11, 2017!
• The Ernst Quarries in Bakersfield, California (near Sharktooth Hill) is home to the largest deposit of Miocene marine fossils in the world.