Wanting Trip Suggestions!

[chg057]

Hey everyone,

 

I'm looking for trip suggestions for this December. My wife and I recently had a little time free up and we have flight/hotel points to redeem. We'd prefer somewhere that's not super cold (we're from Colorado) but something that also has some fun things to do besides collecting, like hiking or exploring. 

 

I've been considering trips to NC, SC, or the Peace River. I'd love to hear from anyone who would have some suggestions for places where we can vacation and I can get out for a few afternoons to look for cool specimens. I'd be particularly interested in fish/shark tooth locations, but invertebrates would also be cool (especially ammonites, trilobites, etc). 

 

Let me know what you guys think - any suggestion is appreciated!

[dalmayshun]

I live in Ft Myers, fossil hunt on the Peace river , it does contain many shark's teeth and a few vertebrate things...but you would need a kayak or canoe...most other areas close to the river are privately owned. So if you come down our way, you might want to book a trip immediately. That is our heavy traffic time. Not saying we outrank NC, or SC, but we are warming...and therefore busier. Wouldnt want you to decide to come to Florida, Venice beach for example, and not be able to get in.  Most of our Florida finds accessible to casual fossil hunters are shells of one kind or another. A trilobite was recently found near Ft Myers, but was dug up from 1500 feet down by an oil rig.   LOL That said, there are wonderful places to hunt near Jacksonsonville, Crystal River, Venice, Ft Myers. If  you do decide on our area and would like more info, email me and I'll try to help with some specifics. (rbusch1062@aol.com)

[paxhunter]

Give Calvert Cliffs in Calvert County Maryland some consideration we have some of the most prolific miocene deposits in the world, and one of the best parts is that you can do very well just surface collecting plus there are some good public access points ie Brownie's, Flag ponds, Matoaka Cabins, and Calvert Cliffs state park. Then you can also hit Purse State park, and Westmoreland state park on the Potomac. You can find all sorts of sharks teeth including Megalodon and lots of cetacean material as well. Also the best time to hunt the cliffs is in the winter. Plus you can see all the sites in DC as well. These were my best 3 from last thursday but i came home with over 200 teeth.

[ynot]

Shark tooth Hill (Bakersfield, California) is always nice in the winter, but not much else to do around there. There is a nearby river that You can fish, but I do not so can't say if it is any good.

 

If You go to Florida make sure to get Your fossiling permit before hand.

[Peace river rat]

Arcadia is a good place on the peace river, not sure what water temp and height will be in December. I have done well in the last two weeks, in a freakish amount of surface finds due to near record water heights from Irma. It would be most optimal to dig the peace around March, depending on conditions, of course.

 

If you wanted to dig in December, a wetsuite would be great! You can ask Darktooth, I took him and the kids digging here, sadly, he had only 2 hours to dig.

[jcbshark]

I’m pretty biased but we have a lot to do in Florida. Zoos, museums, diving, hiking,theme parks and plenty of good fossil hunting. Sometimes it seems more are vacationing here than live in the sunshine state

[chg057]

Thanks, everyone!

[jpc]

Shark Tooth Hill that was mentioned above is great.  And heck if you drive you can spend (=waste in my humble opinion) a few days in Las Vegas.  But look into trilobite sites on the CA/NV border form there.  Death Valley is sorta on the way as well.