Trip To America

[amaltheus]

Hi,to all you mad fossilers out there.My wife and i are looking to come to the USA in June or September.Flying to New York for a few days,then on to Indianapolis,to see an old friend we haven't seen for twenty years. We hope to visit Yellowstone park, San Francisco, Yosemite and maybe some other places. Its probably going to be a once in a life time trip and is for our 25th wedding anniversary.

While in the States I would like to see fossil collections and maybe also collect some fossils, knowing just how big the USA is I would welcome any suggestions from other fossilers, bearing in mind we will only be there for three weeks, so time and cost will be a factor.

Thanks for any replies, keep fossilling.

Steve

[grampa dino]

Hi and welcome to the forum from Calgary Alberta, Canada

Don't take this wrong there is noting wrong with the U.S.A.

But did you ever think about western Canada

With in a four hour drive you can have

Trilobites

Brachiopods,and other sea critters

Fossil plant out crops

DINOSAURS

Badlands and or the Mountains

[erose]

Are you going to be driving between cities? There could be some great collecting between NY(city?) and Indianapolis. Just southeast of indianapolis is come of the best fossil collecting in the Cincinnatian (Upper Ordovician). Once you get west others will have to suggest areas to collect. But no collecting in the national parks.

Oh, and don't let Grampa fool you, Canada is highly over rated....just kidding! I'd love to hit those sites in Western Canada myself.

[ashcraft]

Wow, what a trip and a question. I would suggest that you think about what you really want to see/collect and start your search there. Gramps is right about Canada having lots (I guess having never been there), but the USA is the same. Here in Missouri within a thirty mile radius you can find ordovician crinoids, cambrian trilobites, devonian shark spines, silurian shark teeth, mississippian rock with so many fossils your head will spin, cretaceous plants, ammonites, and dinosaurs, eocene plants, and pleistocene plants and animals. And your talking about a trip of thousands of miles. I envy you.

Brent Ashcraft

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Dig Eocene fish in one of the pay quarries in Kemmerer, WY. It will be a slam dunk trip you need to do once. Non stop finds, can do a half day if you want to keep the cost down. Also consider U-Dig trilobites (Cambrian) near Antelope Springs, UT. Guaranteed trilobites. You can also do a half day if you want. With trips like this you cut to the chase and maximize the fossil finding when in the field. You can even use their hand tools.

[Shamalama]

I agree with Dan, those two sites are a must if your in the western states. On your drive out to Wyoming, you could easily visit Chicago's Field Museum ( http://www.fieldmuseum.org/ ) and the Ashfall Fossil Beds: http://ashfall.unl.edu/ . The Ashfall beds are a great fossil site that shows you what happened to a herd of primitive plains animals when Yellowstone blew up millions of years ago. I'd avoid Dinosaur National Monument as the main exhibit is closed due to the building being replaced. If you go to Kemmerer for the fish fossils you could also visit the Fossil Butte National Monument: http://www.nps.gov/fobu/index.htm . I'd be happy to take you to St. Clair for Fern Fossils, it's a 2 1/2 hour drive from New York.

[lordpiney]

steve, if you feel like driving about an hour south of n.y.c. when your here i'll put you on some cretaceous sharks teeth, and other fossils. just let me know.

[Bill]

Hi Steve

I told you you'd get some good info here.

Edited January 15, 2010 by Bill

[tracer]

hi there - sounds like a big trip. there are a couple of ways to go at it. you didn't really say whether you were intending to drive these huge distances between places or fly. and you didn't say where you'll end up at the end. it would seem that the way to go about it, if it isn't first and foremost a fossiling trip, is to figure out exactly where the major stops are and how much time you'll spend sightseeing. then add in the travel time and routes. that leaves you with an idea of the free time to fossil hunt, and whether it's feasible. i do this with family vacations. i look at what free, uncommitted time we'll have at each place we stay, and i look at possible free time along driving routes between places. then, assuming there is any free time, i research the heck out of the areas i'm passing through or staying, and try to figure out where fossil hunting might work. i look at geological maps, google earth, etc. and plan it all out so as little time as possible is wasted. if you can go ahead and do that, then perhaps you'll know more about where you'll be with free time and can post it here to see if any members can assist you with hunting ideas. alternatively, if you really think you can make it most anywhere in the states, you can post exactly the types of fossils or the ages of strata you'd like to look at and see which directions you get steered. if i was just going to be air-dropped into the u.s. to hunt fossils, i'd pick locations over a thousand miles apart from each other, depending upon what i wanted to find the most.

or you can just forget all that and visit texas. we have everything here.

course there's only like two guys in the state who know where it all is, and they're not saying, but we know the stuff's all here somewhere.

[Darbi]

If you are going through Kansas by any chances, visit Western Kansas badlands, Monument Rocks, and Keystone Gallery. I have heard that Western Kansas badlands have plenty of fossils. Monument Rocks is located in Western Kansas, there are so many fossilized oysters that it's nearly impossible to avoid stepping on it. I never have been to Keystone Gallery, this small business takes people to fossil hunts to some Western Kansas badlands for a fee, I think it's quite expensive but might worth it. I hope to go on Keystone Gallery fossil hunt this summer.

Keystone Gallery's homepage: http://www.keystonegallery.com/

To find out about fossil hunt and rates: http://www.keystonegallery.com/fossils/fossil_hunts/index.html

Enjoy the America trip!

[Shamalama]

i research the heck out of the areas i'm passing through or staying, and try to figure out where fossil hunting might work. i look at geological maps, google earth, etc. and plan it all out so as little time as possible is wasted.

I agree, this is the best method and one that I follow during my vacations. Especially when travelling long distances between spots.

[amaltheus]

Hi,and thanks to all you guys who took the time to reply.It was all very good sound advice and information.Iam still working out where to go apart from NewYork and Indianapolis,which are both definant.we have 3 weeks.It looks like we will spend 3 or 4 days in New York,then on to Indinapolis to see our old friend for 4 to 6 days.I then have to work out where else to vist,internal flights etc.Then i can decide on fossil trips!!!! I will let you know how i get on.Thanks again,keep rocking,steve.

[Kentuckiana Mike]

I would encourage you to visit the Indiana State Museum in Indianapolis while there. The bottom floor has an excellent geology exhibit that leads into fossils found around the state. Indiana has a rich fossil fauna from Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, and Carboniferous Periods. The collection of crinoids is excellent showcasing the world famous Crawfordsville, Indiana specimens. You can also see some of the vertebrate fossils found in the state including an almost fully intact mastodont in another exhibit. The gift shop has some small fossils from Indiana for sale as well as affordable samplings of shark teeth.

See this blog entry for an idea of what the exhibits look like:

http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2010/01/visit-to-indiana-state-museum-part-2.html

http://louisvillefossils.blogspot.com/2010/01/platycrinites-saffordi-crinoid.html

If you get a chance to travel while in Indianapolis, travel 90 minutes south down I-65 to Louisville, Kentucky. Home of the Falls of the Ohio State Park (exit 0 before the Ohio River) with its exposed Devonian and Silurian coral beds. The interpretive center has a nice display of coral fossils and film on how the area was formed and what lived there. The gift shop has some affordable fossils for sale from the Louisville and southern Indiana area. As an added bonus there is a small pile of Waldron Shale next to the parking lot that visitors can collect Silurian Period fossils from. Another pile near it has fluorite minerals hauled in from Illinois that can be explored for the yellow and purple crystals. Just remember those labeled areas are the only places you can collect in the park. Visit their website at http://www.fallsoftheohio.org/fossils.html and look at the collecting fossils section for local roadcuts to visit.

Have an enjoyable holiday in the United States!