Fossil Park Sylvania, OH |
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Rating |
Great |
Age |
5 and up |
Lockers |
None |
Restrooms |
1 port-a-john |
Food |
Restaurant across street |
Closest Coffee |
Coffee shop across street |
Recommendation |
This place is a lot of fun for rock hounds, or those who simply enjoy getting dirty. |
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Review: by Dad
This is a place we have been a few times. We have relatives that live in Sylvania, and they told us about it. We had no idea it was such a rare thing, but there are only three parks in the country that are like this.
The "park" is actually an area where a local quarry dumped some of its rock. When you go there you are not allowed to bring in any tools, but every time we leave with our pockets full of nice fossils. Some people recommend bringing in a box, but we figure that limiting the kids to how many they can fit in their pockets keeps the house from being overrun with rocks, not to mention that they have to be a litle pickier about what they want to take with them.
The county park service provides some toothbrushes and picks, along with water, picnic tables with roofs, and a port-a-john. Really this is all you need. The rocks are dropped all over the place, and at first it is not obvious that there are any fossils there. With a very little practice, you begin to see they are everywhere. It always starts with the excitement of finding the first few, but by the end you are looking for the best ones. It would be easy to pull out over 100 fossils per hour if you wanted to.
The park is full of Devonian shale and rock, which means you are looking at early sea cr
eatures, not dinosaurs. Don't expect to come out with a T-Rex tooth or anything like that. The big find here is a trilobite. We did find a couple of pieces of trilobyte, but we found more brachiopods, and some really cool horn coral. A sign at the begining of the trail tells you what to look for and helps you identify your finds at the end of the day.
The park is only open June through October and on weekends only. The bonus here is that it is FREE!
This is a great stop if you want to spend the day as an amatuer paleontologist, but even if you just want to spend a half an hour you are guaranteed to be able to find and take home a fossil.
Additional Review:
Will: Lots of fun to dig in the dirt. The fossils are everywhere, but they are fragile and easy to break.