• 8am-4:30pm

• $165 per day

• 14+ (minors must be accompanied)

• Limited to 10 participants per session

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Prepare to get dirty digging in the Triassic Chinle Formation for fossil bones of giant amphibians, reptiles, and even early dinosaurs. Join Adam Marsh, lead paleontologist at the park for this one-day introduction to paleontology field work.

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You’ll start the day with a behind the scenes tour of the park fossil collections and then be driven ‘off the beaten’ path to work for about five hours at the research quarry and dig site. While there, participants will work closely with park paleontology crew to learn to identify fossils from rock and carefully excavate specimens.

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This is a real-life adventure where participants participate in a real paleontological dig. That means you’ll be working on your hands and knees in the dirt using light hand tools and brushes, but there is no heavy digging or lifting. Depending on what the day turns up, you could be casting fossils to carry out using plaster and burlap.

Any and all collected specimens become part of the park’s museum collection!

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Click here for more details on what to expect on a paleontology dig. 

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What's Included​

• Transportation to and from the dig site from the visitor center

• All training and tools including hammers and chisels, pickaxes, sledgehammers, trowels, brushes and awls.

• Lunch of a cold sandwich and water to refill bottles

No accommodations are provided in the cost.

What To Bring

• Protective clothing including long sleeves and long pants

• Sturdy shoes

• Hat

• Refillable water bottles

• Sun-protection

• Snacks

• Light daypack

• $650

• Adults only or minors 15+ with special permission

• Limited to 8 participants

Join Petrified Forest National Forest paleontologist Christa Sadler for an exploration of the paleontology and archeology of some of the newly acquired park lands. This is a car camping expedition in a remote area of the park where you will prospect and look for new fossil sites and excavate fossils at known localities. You will have a chance to learn prep work in the paleontological lab and have time to explore the region for petroglyphs, incredible scenery and whatever else we discover.

During the course of our six days, you will also learn about:

• Regional geology and Mesozoic stratigraphy and relations to other Late Triassic formations worldwide

• An overview of the Permian-Triassic extinction and Mesozoic paleontology

• Timeline of prehistory at Petrified Forest NP

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What to Expect​

This is an overnight tent camping expedition, during which you will be an active participant in paleontological prospecting, excavation, and fossil preparation techniques. These are full of hiking, working and surveying. The temperatures during the day will be in the mid-90s and at night in the high 50s.

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• Day 1: Meet at the Rainbow Forest Museum for an introduction to the geology and paleontology of the region and the park. After lunch, we will take a short hike to some of the popular areas of the park. Later in the afternoon we will move to our base camp.

• Day 2: This morning we’ll work in the paleontological lab and collections and take another hike in the afternoon

• Days 3-4: Excavations and prospecting all day!

• Day 5: A day of excavating paleontology and prospecting for archaeology!

• Day 6: We’ll move to the paleontology lab, where we will have a chance to learn fossil preparation techniques and finish up around lunchtime.

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Click here for more details on what to expect on a paleontology dig. 

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What to Bring​

All training and tools including hammers and chisels, pickaxes, sledgehammers, trowels, brushes and awls will be provided. Feel free to bring your own whisk broom, dustpan, rock hammer and small paint brushes. There will be a full kitchen, with stove and water, coolers to keep your food cold, rain tarp, as well as a toilet set up.

• Dinner is the ONLY meal provided. Bring your own breakfast and lunch for 6 days

• Sleeping bag, pad, ground cloth, pillow, blanket

• Tent

• Camp chair

• Hiking boots

• Camp shoes

• Lightweight pants

• Pair of warm pants or sweatpants

• Knee pads or pad to sit on while excavating

• Three liters of water capacity

• Daypack

• A roll of toilet paper

• Sun hat

• Warm jacket and a lightweight fleece or sweatshirt

• Long sleeved sun shirt

• T-shirts

• Rain gear

• Warm hat and gloves

• Atlas or nitrile work gloves or lightweight cotton garden gloves.

• Mess kit, mug and eating utensils

1. What makes your site significant?
   These sites have produced Triassic fossils that represent the earliest frogs in North America, the first records of certain fish and reptile species outside of the Eastern Hemisphere and Antarctica, and the world's oldest caecilian.

2. What has been most surprising about your discoveries at this location?​
   These sites are so fossil-rich that virtually anyone has the chance to make an important discovery any time we visit them.

3. What are your current research objectives at your site? 
   We are seeking to understand more about the small-bodied animals living ~220 million years ago during the Late Triassic. Like today, the vast majority of vertebrate biodiversity in the Triassic came from small animals, but these are often under-represented in the fossil record due to their fragility and the lack of previous collections efforts.