Best Places to Fossil Hunt in the United States (2026 Guide)

The best places to fossil hunt in the United States cluster around three settings: free public collecting parks where state or federal agencies have designated specific exposures for amateur collectors, commercial pay-to-dig quarries that let you keep what you split out of the rock, and tidal beaches where Miocene marine sediments shed shark teeth onto the foreshore. Each setting rewards a different style of visitor. The right state depends on what you want to find and how much planning you're prepared to do.

Federal collecting law sits underneath everything. The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act of 2009 (16 U.S.C. §§ 470aaa to 470aaa-11) prohibits removal of vertebrate fossils from federal land without a research permit, while permitting "casual collecting" of reasonable quantities of common invertebrate and plant fossils on Bureau of Land Management and US Forest Service land. The National Park Service is stricter: no fossil collecting at all is allowed inside NPS units. State land rules vary case-by-case, which is why the marquee sites in this guide live on land managed by state parks, municipalities, or commercial operators with clear, published collecting rules.

At-a-glance comparison

State	Top site	Period	Access	Fee	Best season
Florida	Venice / Caspersen Beach	Miocene	Free	$0	Year-round
Ohio	Caesar Creek State Park	Ordovician	Free with permit	$0	Spring–fall
Maryland	Calvert Cliffs State Park	Miocene	Free beach	Park day-use	Year-round, post-storm
New York	Penn Dixie Fossil Park	Devonian	Fee-based	~$15–20 adult	April–October
Texas	Mineral Wells Fossil Park	Pennsylvanian	Free	$0	Spring–fall
Wyoming	American Fossil (Kemmerer)	Eocene	Pay-to-dig	$89–169 adult	May–October
Utah	U-Dig Fossils	Cambrian	Pay-to-dig	Operator fee	March–October
South Dakota	Mammoth Site (Hot Springs)	Pleistocene	Viewing + dig	Operator fee	Year-round
Montana	Hell Creek commercial digs	Cretaceous	Pay-to-dig	Operator fee	Summer
Colorado	Florissant Fossil Beds NM	Eocene	Viewing only inside NPS	NPS fee	May–October

Florida: Miocene shark teeth on free public beaches

Florida is the easiest state in the country to find a fossil on a first trip. Almost the entire surface geology is Miocene-through-Quaternary marine sediment, and offshore phosphate beds shed shark teeth onto the Gulf coast continuously. Venice Beach and the nearby Caspersen Beach are the canonical sites — bring a mesh scoop, work the swash zone an hour either side of low tide, and you'll come home with teeth.

The legal layer matters. Under the Florida Fossil Permit program run by the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida, shark teeth, ray teeth, invertebrates, and plant fossils may be collected on state land by anyone with or without a permit, but vertebrate fossils (mammal bone, turtle, fish other than chondrichthyans) require a $5-per-year permit and must be reported to the museum. The Peace River, the state's most productive vertebrate site, sits on Florida-owned submerged land — collecting megalodon teeth and shark material is unrestricted; collecting a mammoth tooth or ground-sloth claw requires the permit. The Florida site directory on GFH and the Florida guide cover Venice, Caspersen, Peace River, and Bone Valley in detail.

Ohio: Ordovician invertebrates on a managed Army Corps spillway

The Cincinnatian Series of Ordovician limestone and shale exposed across southwest Ohio is the global reference section for Late Ordovician stratigraphy. The most accessible site is Caesar Creek State Park near Waynesville, where the US Army Corps of Engineers manages the spillway below the dam as a designated fossil-collecting area. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources confirms that fossil collecting at the spillway is allowed; visitors pick up a free permit from the Army Corps Visitor Center before walking down to the rock.

Trilobites (Flexicalymene, Isotelus), brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, and small horn corals all occur in the spillway exposure. Trammel Fossil Park in Sharonville and Fossil Park in Sylvania add free Devonian collecting to the state's mix. See the Ohio sites listing and the Ohio guide for the full set.

Maryland: Miocene shark teeth on the Chesapeake beach

Calvert Cliffs State Park on the western shore of the Chesapeake is the East Coast's best free shark-tooth site. The Maryland Geological Survey identifies more than 600 fossil species from the Miocene Chesapeake Group (10 to 20 million years old) exposed in the cliffs; the Maryland DNR explicitly notes that shark teeth are found on the beach scree below the cliffs and may be collected, including occasional megalodon material. Climbing or digging into the cliff face is prohibited — landslides have killed visitors, and DNR enforces the rule.

The beach is a 1.8-mile walk from the parking lot at the end of the red trail. Post-storm conditions, especially after a winter northeaster, refresh the scree and produce the best collecting. See Calvert Cliffs on GFH for directions and tide guidance.

New York: the Hamilton Group at Penn Dixie

Penn Dixie Fossil Park & Nature Reserve in Blasdell, just south of Buffalo, is the easiest place in the country to dig a complete trilobite in a single afternoon. The site exposes the Middle Devonian Hamilton Group — the global reference section for that interval — and produces Eldredgeops rana (the New York state fossil), Greenops, brachiopods, crinoid columnals, and pyritised cephalopods. Admission includes a 20-minute guided geology tour and the use of basic collecting tools. Open roughly April through October. The New York state listing on GFH covers Penn Dixie and the Devonian outcrops along the Mohawk Valley.

Texas: free Pennsylvanian invertebrates and Cretaceous trackways

The City of Mineral Wells operates Mineral Wells Fossil Park as a free public Pennsylvanian collecting site — the city's official page calls out "personal use" collection of the 300-million-year-old invertebrates, no permit, no fee. Crinoid stem ossicles, brachiopods, trilobites, echinoid spines, and small horn corals come out of the exposed shale and limestone every visit. The park is open every day from 8 AM to 8:45 PM.

For viewing, Dinosaur Valley State Park near Glen Rose preserves Early Cretaceous sauropod and theropod trackways pressed into the Paluxy River limestone roughly 113 million years ago. Texas Parks & Wildlife charges an $8 daily entrance fee for adults aged 13+; children 12 and under are free (verify before visiting). Collecting is strictly prohibited inside the park; this is a trackway-viewing site.

Wyoming: Eocene fish at the Green River quarries

Two commercial operations near Kemmerer work the Eocene Green River Formation and let collectors keep complete fish from a 50-million-year-old freshwater lake. American Fossil's 2026 pricing runs from $89 for a 2-hour adult dig to $169 for a full 8-hour dig, with children's rates at roughly half. Knightia is the most common species; Diplomystus, Mioplosus, gar, and stingray come out less often. The adjacent Fossil Butte National Monument is the no-collecting counterpart where complete specimens are viewable in situ under glass.

Utah: Cambrian trilobites and the densest Jurassic bone bed

U-Dig Fossils in Millard County is the most reliable trilobite quarry in the western US. The Middle Cambrian Wheeler Shale, approximately 507 million years old, produces Elrathia kingii and Asaphiscus wheeleri in commercial volume. The 2026 season runs March 30 through October 24, gate open 9 AM to 6 PM, closed Sundays. Operator fees apply.

For viewing, Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry inside Jurassic National Monument holds more than 12,000 Jurassic bones from at least 74 individual dinosaurs in one bone bed — over 75% from Allosaurus fragilis, the highest known concentration of a single carnivore species. The BLM manages the site; the visitor center holds an Allosaurus skeleton mount and interactive bone-bed maps. Note that the BLM lists the dig site as temporarily closed during a building replacement project — verify before visiting.

Colorado: Eocene plants and insects at Florissant

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument preserves an exceptional 34-million-year-old Eocene lake bed with delicate insect, spider, and plant fossils. Collecting is prohibited inside the monument (PRPA applies — this is NPS land), but the adjacent privately-operated Florissant Fossil Quarry sells half-day shale-splitting access where visitors keep what they find. The monument's visitor center and trail system are open year-round; the privately-operated quarry runs late spring through early fall.

South Dakota and Montana: Cretaceous dinosaurs at private quarries

The Hell Creek Formation across eastern Montana, the western Dakotas, and Wyoming is the most productive Late Cretaceous dinosaur bed on Earth. Public collecting is impossible — almost all productive ground is private ranch land or BLM (PRPA-protected for vertebrates). The realistic route in is a paid commercial dig with operators in Carter County, Montana, or via the Mammoth Site near Hot Springs, South Dakota, which offers a public dig program at a Pleistocene sinkhole that has produced more than 60 Columbian mammoths in situ.

Where to start: "near me" picks by region

If you're new to the hobby, the closest accessible site to most of the US population is almost certainly an East Coast Miocene shark-tooth beach, an Ohio Ordovician spillway, or a Mineral Wells-style Pennsylvanian park. Open the GFH map of US fossil sites and filter for your state — there is almost certainly a documented free or low-cost site within a few hours' drive. For first-trip habits that apply regardless of which state you visit, see how to find fossils near you as a beginner. For dinosaur-specific options, the California guide covers La Brea, Shark Tooth Hill, and the Bay Area sites; the Florida guide covers the shark-tooth coast; the Ohio guide walks the Cincinnatian Series sites in order.

Cross-border options: Canada

Several of the world's marquee fossil destinations sit one or two days' drive from the northern US border. From New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire, the closest Canadian sites are Rock Glen Conservation Area near Arkona, Ontario (Middle Devonian Widder Formation, the only Canadian souvenir-collecting site in the marquee set) and Miguasha National Park in Quebec (UNESCO Devonian fish-to-tetrapod transition, viewing-only). From Maine, the Joggins Fossil Cliffs in Nova Scotia (UNESCO Carboniferous Coal Age forests, free beach access) and the Stonehammer UNESCO Global Geopark around Saint John, New Brunswick are both reachable inside a day. From Michigan, Minnesota, and North Dakota, the Stonewall Quarry Park in Manitoba (uppermost-Ordovician Stonewall Formation) is the closest entry point into the Canadian Interlake carbonate belt. From Montana, Idaho, and Washington, the Burgess Shale guided hikes in Yoho National Park, BC and the Dinosaur Provincial Park badlands of Alberta round out the western options. The full Canadian directory is at /countries/canada.