fossil park

I looked online for excursions on our way home from Ohio and found this place. We had kids from age 4 to 12 and they all enjoyed it. You are not allowed to bring tools so we brought paintbrushes to use to dust them off. We were here for a couple hours and the kids each found a few fossils. They were having so much fun just with the hoping of discovering something in the clay and rocks. It took a little while to find anything but then we found quite a bit. It is extremely messy so be prepared and come with patience.

What a great, simple, rustic form of entertainment. We found fossils every time we went and there is an ice cream shop across the way to complete a fun afternoon. Bring a hat or sunscreen there is not much shade.

I am a fossil enthusiast and had researched fossil areas within Ohio. There were great articles about Fossil Park and great reviews (although dated) so I decided to plan a mini vacation and drive down there. It was quite a trip and when I got there I have to say I was incredibly disappointed. It's a tiny kids park with a few piles of dirt mixed with stones. You can only break the rocks apart by hitting them against each other, but the fossils (which are just imprints) are so fragile they shatter if you try to free them from a larger piece of rock. There were very few rocks to break and trying to dig through rock filled dirt was difficult (and painful) and there were even fewer fossils. I would not recommend this park unless you live 30 minutes or less away. If you live further, it's just not worth the trip! For the parents who want to take their children out on a fun learning experience, and don't live too far away, fossil park would be perfect for them. The kids were happy finding bits and pieces of fossils and had a lot of fun playing in the dirt and water.

Great place for kids and adults!It's not a fancy place... You may or may not find fossils , however it will keep kids interested while searching. They will get dirty so keep that in mind! Buckets for water are recommended. There is acses for stollers and a place to seat. We visited today for the first time and had a great time! We will be back!

The fossils here are unique to the world! Lots of visitors. They have added restrooms. Interesting for couples, families, young and old. Allow a couple of hours tops.

We took our 3 yo to this, not sure what to expect. It turns out that after a few days of rain, and at 9am on a Friday morning, we had the place mostly to ourselves! One older gentleman drove in from Cleveland (he was visiting a brother but originally from LA, and had been on a dino dig in MOntana) While my hubby and I were looking for actual fossils, our little guy had a blast playing in the ¨toothpaste¨ mud (they had told us to bring toothbrushes to clean off the fossils) and would look at the fossils and then go back to ¨cleaning¨ others. We were impressed with the place, although the fossils were small fragments, we did find a few complete shell looking ones (they have names listed...brachiopod maybe?) and filled our egg carton. Family at home were impressed with out findings, and our little guy asked to go back a few times. The man who was from LA was actually quite interested in what we had found and found an ancient ¨roly poly¨ specimen he showed us and told us about. He was amazed this place was free. The only advice I have is, especially if it has been raining, is to wear boots and old clothes so you can get into the mud to find them!! I highly recommend this to anyone with little boys who love dinos and digging in the mud.

I have been to this park twice over the last three years. I have two elementary age school children who are really into fossils. In my experience, EVERYTHING hinges on the timing of when they dump a load from the quarry. For obvious reasons, this is done unannounced and at random. If you are fortunate enough to be there shortly after a dump, it is a great experience. My son split open a rock and found a trilobite fragment with the impression on the other side. It was a hit at school when they where studying fossilsHowever, if you go there and there hasn't been a fresh load delivered for weeks or months, there is nothing much to find. The shale hardens after it gets wet and packed down and since you are not allowed to bring tools, it is really difficult to excavate anything with just your bare hands. All you can do is look for loose fossils that may have been overlooked and not picked over.Regardless, if you go, bring along a bucket - the fossils show up better when wet. They have a big water tank on site but it's a pain to keep walking back and forth to rinse the rocks off. Also, an old toothbrush for cleaning, a box of tissue paper for packing (these are very fragile specimens) and a container to carry them home. Before I went, I showed my children what kind of fossils we were likely to find so they wouldn't be disappointed if we didn't find a full T-Rex skeleton.

We took 3 grandkids, and the 6 and 8 year old enjoyed it because they had no expectations. But the place is just a few piles of hard-packed clayish mud with a scattering of rocks here and there, not many. Looking closely, you can find many small, dime-sized or less bits of fossils, most unrecognizable as to what they were originally. We drove 2 hours from Columbus, OH, had a great time at a Holiday Inn with an indoor-outdoor poll in Perrysburg, but the Cincinnati that we will search out the next time we want a trip with grandkids.

I guess it all depends on what your goals are when you come to this place. As a park with trails to hike with decent restrooms and adequate parking, this is a nice little park. However, if it is your intention to find the elusive trilobite fossil, you are most likely to be very disappointed.To really understand the reason for my disappointment, you need to know the back-story of my childhood fossil experiences. When I was a kid growing up around Louisville, Ky. during the school grade levels of 4th and 5th in elementary school, my friend and I were exploring the area around the subdivision where we grew up. Our usual intention was to fish for bluegills or find crawdads... not searching for fossils. To us, these things were as commonplace as rocks. We'd trudge along the stream beds looking for crawdads, and under every second or third rock we'd find a crawdad. Almost all of those rocks also had fossils in them. Usually trilobites about a half-inch in size. Some of the larger rocks would have 4 of 5 of them. We thought nothing of taking some of these home because they were so commonplace. Ok, back to this Fossil Park in Sylvania. There are fossils to be seen here. There are some large boulder size rocks with lots of shell fragment fossils to look at. I guess, to a kid growing up in a digital world, seeing these for a first time would be a cool experience, but if you were looking to take home some fine specimens without getting muddy, you will be disappointed. To try and chip out the fossils in the boulders, you are going to need tools, and they are not allowed here. On a completely different note, I should comment about Jo Jo's Pizza across the street from Fossil park. I visited Jo Jo's about a week ago and found the pizza to be just average, however the Gyro sandwich at Jo Jo's is $5.99 and huge. If you are gonna go fossil hunting and work up an appetite, I'd suggest Jo Jo's to satisfy the hunger, but order from the non-pizza part of the menu for some good food at cheap prices.

If you have a budding young paleontologist, this is the place to visit. Free fossil hunting with lots of fossils to find. The specimen are not very big, but gives a young child (or adult) the experience of finding a fossil. No tools are allowed, but the fossils break out of the sediment pretty easily by hand. Fossils can be washed off on site. There is no shade in the fossil area, so come prepared with sun hats or on a cloudy day. There is a picnic area, but it is small. Restroom facilities are great!

We drove 3 hours from Columbus specifically to visit this park. The drive was nice, the park however, not so good. On the positive, they have ample parking, its free and they have nice restroom facilities. The park however is extremely small, only 3 table stations, a water barrel and about 5 small piles of hard packed sediment. Now, if you were allowed at least a small hand shovel or other small instrument to dig a bit, things might have been easier. As it was, we found a couple shells and gave up quickly. To sum up: if you are driving through Sylvania, stop and take a look. However, If you are making a special trip, don't do it. Go to Ceaser Creek, just north of Cincinnati. Tons of fossilized items and a huge area to mill about. If this info has helped, click yes below.

Since I visited Fossil Park some improvements have been made. It is fun for kids and adults both to dig and discover. Take water and tools.

Easy to get to and it's a great outdoor activity for the kids.Search for fossils and walk or bike the nearby trails. You'll be in a quarry setting and shade or shelter is limited.

Fossil park is nice for kids its off the main road and if you don't know where it is you can not find it?I wish they would put up a nice sign so other people could find it.It also is located across from Mayberry with eateries ice cream pizza lots to choose from.

Second trip to Fossil Park. Three years ago I came home from Florida and went to the park and found nothing but piles of mud, We are here on vacation again and today found the same conditions. The last time I wrote a letter to the park officials expressing my disbelief at the conditions there and got a reply after 3 mo. One little girl was there with her father today and the poor kid was so taken aback by the mud piles she was almost in tears. Hanson needs to re open one of it's quarries to collectors. This is sad and disgusting.