florissant fossil quarry

I can't say much. Piles and Piles of rubble. Two pot head women take money, give you scraper, razor and show you what you can't keep. It took me about 5 min to realize there were nothing in those piles of crap. When I said something they brought out a few good pieces from the back and that was the only thing that was worth keeping.(couple of leaves, sticks and so on. was a waste of half a day. Should have done something else that day. Remember, you will be going through piles of broken shale that had been picked through and picked through.

So the price isn't bad $10 per person per hour. The staff shows you how to look for fossils and you are provided with the tools (razor blade, putty knife, and a butter knife.) The staff also comes around and will identify fossils and answer questions as you break rocks. There are several picnic benches in the shade for you to sit at while you break rocks for fossils. The problem is the rock you are working with is shale so think very thin, very breakable. Which makes it easy to break any fossils you do find. Also, the pieces of rock you are allowed to break are tiny fragments. There are very few decent pieces to work with. We did find fossils; a few leaves, a piece of wood and plants and mainly debris. If you find any fish, reptiles, or birds you don't get to keep those. We were told those would be sent to the museum with your name on it for research. However, there's a fossil shop about 1000 feet away which I'm pretty sure is where those fossils end up. I would just keep on driving.

My 7-year-old son is a rock hound and really wanted to find and collect his own fossils. This fit the bill. As mentioned in other reviews, you pay $10/person/hour to collect rocks from large piles and then carefully separate the shale layers to reveal small fossils of bugs and leaves. The fossils are basically imprints, not the "bones" that you see paleontologists patiently extracting at other sites. My son enjoyed himself, but he was a little disappointed by the size and quality of the fossils (he wanted a big find). As a parent, I was disappointed that there was no education provided regarding the time period the fossils were from or how the shale beds were formed, etc. The gift shop is a small storage shed with a young boy running it (he is a very nice budding businessman). Overall, the place is pretty rustic and low-tech. TIP: Do not expect to find this using a GPS, Google Map, etc. or you will get a very long but beautiful scenic tour of the Divide area!Directions: Drive west on U.S. Highway 24 until you get to the town of Florissant. You will see the Fossil Inn on the right and the Thunderbird Inn on the left. Turn left (south) on the cross street there (there was no street sign at the time, but it is Teller County Road 1). The site is on the right (west) just past the feed store (it is less than .25 miles from the highway).

I have taken a group of 30 professional geologists to the quarry and the group enjoyed the collecting opportunity. One really neat spider specimen, several readily identified insects and numerous less plainly identified insects along with plenty of leaf fossils. The key is to find the thin bedded shale and split it patiently. Very worthwhile visit.

Large piles with few high quality rocks. Best rocks are taken out and sold separately for higher cost. It wasn't expensive but I have done much better fossil hunting in Utah and Wyoming.

My family and I stopped here during our colorado trip. We all had a great time. The lady who ran it had to be one of the nicest people I have met. She was so helpful towards my 2 kids (ages 6 and 10) in helping them find the fossils. She even helped my wife and myself. It cost $10 an hour and I was a little worried that the hour wouldn't be enough and we would end up spending $80 or more. The hour was perfect! The lady even gave us an extra 10 minutes or so to make sure we all walked away with something cool. This was a really unique experience and if you gave an hour to spare I highly recommend it.

This is good, low-tech family fun. You pick pieces of shale from the piles and split them into layers, looking for fossils between the layers. Everyone in my group of 5 found something cool. Our kids are 9-15, and they and both adults all enjoyed the treasure hunt. You keep what you find, and at $10 per hour per hunter, it was a good value, especially compared to most other vacation experiences.

My daughter is really in to fossils so when I saw this we decided to drive out of the way and go. It was a lot of fun for 4 people x10. You keep all you find enless they are rare. Just know you are mainly going to find fossilized leaves/ bugs. We enjoyed once we got the hang of it. The people there were quite friendly and helpful. Not sure I'd go out of my way enless into it, but it's worth trying something new.Tip There only bathroom is a port a potty

My family stopped here after driving to Pikes Peak. Spent about an hour looking for fossils and even bought some to take home. From here it was a nice, scenic drive to Breckenridge - if you're heading that way.

I've taken quite a few school trips here and it's a very nice place. A little bit of a drive, but a very peaceful place. Nothings more fun then getting down and dirty searching for some dino remains!

This is a quarry on the edge of Florissant, on the same road that goes to the Fossil Monument. It's $10 per person for one hour of "digging" (which is actually finding pieces of shale to split open and see if you find fossils). We assisted our kids (ages 7 and 9) and our 16 year old worked on her own. There is ample help around and plenty to look through. When my 9 year old was discouraged, Dixie (the woman in charge) helped provide pieces to split as well as some fossils to take. We found some very small bug fossils and some good leaf fossils - enough for excitement and real treasures. This is simple and not glamorous, but real. I felt like the cost was high, but if you buy real fossils anywhere, they are expensive, so the cost of this is not bad (they supply the tools and you get to keep the fossils you find). There are picnic tables to work at if you don't want to work on the ground. There was water available and one outdoor toilet. We are glad we went! (if you don't have time for this, you can buy a bag of shale to look at/split at home for $20)