Hi all,
Yesterday a coworker told me she would be in Chesapeake VA Friday-Sunday Dec. 23-25, 2011. She asked me if I could suggest any collecting sites less than an hour away where she could take three kids ages 6-13 for an hour or two. I told her I would do a little research.
I fairly quickly found mention of a site called Chuckatuck Quarry south of Smithfield, or about 25 miles nw of Chesapeake. Apparently the site has excellent Yorktown Fm. invertebrates, althoough the vertebrates may be a bit scarce. Some of what I read seemed to imply that the site is now closed to collecting. Can any of you tell me more about this place, ie. whether collecting is currently permitted, is it kid-friendly, exact directions, contact info, etc.?
Alternatively, can anyone suggest any other suitable sites less than an hour's drive from Chesapeake? It just has to be kid-friendly and have plenty of easy-to-find fossils of any kind - I'm not looking for anybody's super-secret meg site or anything.
I haven't asked her this yet, but I know she's heading north on the 26th - maybe she would be amenable to stopping somewhere along the way that wouldn't be limited to an hour's drive from Chesapeake. I read that York River State Park has a fossil display, and fossil shells can be collected along the river bank nearby. Anybody know anything about that site?
Thanks for any help anyone can give me. Unfortunately I only have a couple days to find something out for her.
Frank