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Vacation Suggestions


Ramo

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I'm starting to research our annual family vacation, and am open to suggestions. Every summer my wife and I take our 3 kids (3,6,8 yrs in age) on a family vacation. We live in Kansas, so we are open to going about anywhere in the US. We all enjoy fossil, artifact, and "treasure" hunting. We usually camp, or rent a cabin. Last summer we went to Minnesota and brought back a bunch of Agates, and we were thinking of going west, or south this year. Do any of you have any suggestions on where to go? We were thinking of one of the u-dig trilobite sites, or panning for gold, or greenriver fish beds, or something similar. With little kids, we are kind of limited, I know, and we need to be able to find something, or the kids get bored fast. Fire away with your ideas. Thanks.

For one species to mourn the death of another is a new thing under the sun.
-Aldo Leopold
 

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I thought U-Dig and Kemmerer were a blast, but then again I ran off from my family a half day for each. I'm curious what other suggestions you get because best collecting in my experience generally results in some sort of danger to kids not limited to water, sharp rocks, and vertical drops.

Grüße,

Daniel A. Wöhr aus Südtexas

"To the motivated go the spoils."

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We took our family to a pay-to-dig spot right near the Florissant Fossil Beds near Pikes Peak, CO.

In an hour we found a bunch of plants and a few nice insects. The kids (and mom and dad) had a blast.

If you go, you can buy bags of material to take home, and I strongly recommend it. Splitting the shale at home very carefully, I found more than 20 insects.

(BTW, we go digging in W. Kansas with the family every year....have for more than a decade.)

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Guest N.AL.hunter

Bowkill,

If you can make it all the way to Delta, Utah in Millard County, here is what you can find (not counting historical sites and museums): 1. You already know about Antelope Springs and trilobites. There are trilobites all around the area not just at the pay to dig site. 2. Red Quarry for trilobites. 3. Indian pass for brachs, coral and other marine fossils. 4. Bishop Springs Anticline for ammonites and brachs. 5. Conger Springs area for crinoids, coral, nautiloids. 6. Skull Rock pass for graptolites, trilobites... 7. Fossil Mountain for trilobites 8. Topaz Mountain for topazes. 9. Just past Topaz Mountain for Apache Tears. 10. White Quartz at Crystal Peak. 11. Marjim Canyon for trilobites and even placer gold. 12. Painter Springs for garnets, pyrite and muscovite and quartz. 13. Sunstone Knoll for sunstones or labradorite. 14. Near Kanosh for obsidian. 15. Agates at Agate Hill in the Drum Mountains 16. Garnets around the topaz Mountain area.

A guide to all these sites is available for free from Millard County and might still be available by contacting Millard Publishing, Delta, Utah. I have not visited all these sites and several require 4-wheel drive vehicle. Also, we sought but did not find some of them.

On your way out there from Kansas you could stop at the Bonanza , Utah site in Cowboy Canyon, 14 miles south of Dinosaur, Colorado for insects and plants. Easy to find and work at if you just split some of the surface rocks that others have left laying around, but also easy enough to dig fresh stuff.

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Calvert Cliffs, Maryland just outside Washington DC is a great place for fossils and the beaches on the northern end have very shallow water. The kids can play on the beach end while the fossil hunters walk down the cliffs. There is also a Waterpark for the kids with pools and playthings for kids of all ages just down the street from the beach. There is 6 Flags amusement park and all the DC museums about half an hour from the beach.

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I'm starting to research our annual family vacation, and am open to suggestions. Every summer my wife and I take our 3 kids (3,6,8 yrs in age) on a family vacation. We live in Kansas, so we are open to going about anywhere in the US. We all enjoy fossil, artifact, and "treasure" hunting. We usually camp, or rent a cabin. Last summer we went to Minnesota and brought back a bunch of Agates, and we were thinking of going west, or south this year. Do any of you have any suggestions on where to go? We were thinking of one of the u-dig trilobite sites, or panning for gold, or greenriver fish beds, or something similar. With little kids, we are kind of limited, I know, and we need to be able to find something, or the kids get bored fast. Fire away with your ideas. Thanks.

All my favorite travels have been since the kids have grown up. lol I go in the fall and winter, lots of parks have bathrooms with showers open all winter.

Lake Powell on a houseboat for three days, then four days in Kanab, Utah was great in October. Few people and nice temperature. Summer vacations are a must with kids however, haven't been much help.

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