USA Fossil Hunting Roadtrip - Where would you go?

[Dimitris]

Hmm hard to say since I have done 0 research for the USA.

But given the chance sometime, I would visit Peace River Fm for some Megs and Green River Fm for its famous fish.

As @fifbrindacier said, a roadtrip is pending to Morocco. For me starting from Bulgaria is a little more than 4500kms one way.

I will definitely stop somewhere in France and on the way back, I will surely stop near Hallstatt for those lovely Triassic ammonites.

[Kane]

As it is unlikely we'll be opening up the border any time soon, I doubt any US trips are in the cards until maybe 2022. 

But when it does, I would very much like to do a a weeks-long tour of trilobite localities in Minnesota and Wisconsin. 

[JamieLynn]

13 hours ago, grandpa said:

USA Fossil Hunting Roadtrip - Where would you go?

 

Great Question!

 

Over the years I've been fortunate to collect a lot of fossils across many places in the US. 

Thanks to TFF,  I've also become aware of a lot of good people on forum from all over the world. 

• I have lots of fossils, but I still would like to collect more and repeat the thrill of the hunt and of the find and add to my collection. 
• But one can never have too many friends and good memories. 
• So, why not tripple the pleasure? 

To that end here's my considered suggestion:

 

I would ask forum members for opportunities to visit their area, meet them face-to-face, seal some friendships with deeper personal knowledge of each other, and hunt well-known areas (not their honey holes) with them in their area. 

 

That would be my idea of a truly world-class "fossil-friends-memories" road trip plan. 

 

"How do ya' like them apples", JL  

 

Seriously, I hope this opens up a new window of possibilities for you. 

 

[And I will even to volunteer my wife and I to join your family and help with the "chores".]

 

 

 

 

Love Them Apples! hhahahah!!! 

[Mark Kmiecik]

It's January. I live in the Chicago area. Puerto Rico sounds good this time of year.

[Clint08]

I think I would make a big road trip out of it. After leaving MAryland I would head up to Big Brook, NJ for my first stop. Would then swing to upstate NY for some trilobite hunting, Erie, PA for some beach glass, Mazon Creek in IL for some Carboniferous material, and then up to the north shore near Duluth, MN to hunt for agates. I would then head west through the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana hunting the Lance, Hell Creek and Morrison formations for dinosaur teeth and bones, while also making a stop in Kemmerer, WY for a fish dig. After getting my dinosaur fix, I would head to Delta, UT for some more trilobites with U-Dig and then finish at Sharktooth Hill in Bakersfield, CA.

 

I am now at the halfway point and ready to head back to the east coast! I would start by visiting the San Juan Basin in the NM and then to TX to look for fossils in the North Sulphur River (hoping to find some mosasaur teeth or bone). From TX I would head to FL to do some diving in Venice, sifting in the Peace River and make a stop in the Bone Valley area of FL hoping to aquire some nice meg shark teeth. From FL I would head north to GA and make a visit to Tybee Island, Summerville, SC all in search for more shark teeth. After SC I would make a stop in NC to do some offshore diving to Meg Ledge and then inland to GMR. After NC I would head up to VA to hunt along the James River. After this last stop, I would then make my way back home, but before making it home would make a few pit stops at more familiar collecting sites to me which would include Stratford Hall in VA, Nanjemoy, MD and Calvert Cliffs.

 

 Just in driving time I estimated this would take approx. 130 hours.

[Earendil]

I would go to Florissant Fossil Quarry and Corral Bluffs, probably going to make that trip in the spring.

[jpc]

3 hours ago, yardrockpaleo said:

I would go to Florissant Fossil Quarry and Corral Bluffs, probably going to make that trip in the spring.

Corral Bluffs with the Denver Museum folks?  

[Earendil]

Just now, jpc said:

Corral Bluffs with the Denver Museum folks?  

Maybe, but I have to wait till ninth grade to volunteer and go on field trips with them. So probably just solo.

[jpc]

Just to keep you honest, solo would need landowner permission and the museum spent a lot of time and energy getting it, so it might be impossible to get in as a non-museum person.  But don't worry, they will be collecting there well past the time you get into 9th grade.    

[bthemoose]

I'd love to hit up Cretaceous shark teeth sites in Texas, which is where I grew up, but long before I grew interested in such things. Hopefully once life returns more to normal I can combine a trip to visit family with some fossil hunting. (If Texas were smaller, I'd go further north to Oklahoma and Kansas too, but I don't think I can make it on the same trip.)

 

I'd also like to take a trip south down the East Coast to go fossil hunting in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. And I'm increasingly getting interested in Carboniferous sharks, so I guess I'll probably need to visit some other places too!

[historianmichael]

I will be road tripping to Texas in August. I have already begun to research places to stop along the way. My issue now is deciding whether to hug the coast and visit the Gulf Coast states or to go further west and drop down through Oklahoma and Central Texas. There are just too many sites that I want to visit in either direction for me to decide!

[JamieLynn]

@historianmichael - if you come down Central Texas way, let me know if you want some hunting company! That's my stomping grounds!