Field Trips
Collect, Tour, and Explore!
⛏️ Field trip attendance is only available to paid-up Members.
🙋♂️ RSVPs are handled on a first-come first-served basis.
📈 Each trip allows a certain number of attendees, but if a trip fills up a wait list is created.
🔍 If you would like to attend one of the field trips listed below: As soon as you are reasonably sure you will be able attend, send an email to the given address. If you can no longer attend a trip let us know as soon as possible so we can give your spot to someone on the wait list.
Upcoming Field Trips
Capitola Beach
January 20, 2024
Jan 20 - We will be searching for Pleistocene shells and whale fossils. They can only be found at low tide, with the lowest point being 1:30 pm, Saturday.
Newport Aquatic Center (Newport Back Bay)
February 17, 2024
Our Palos Verdes trip has been changed. We will meet the same day, Feb. 17. 100,000 year old Pleistocene shells are abundant and easy to find (using simple ground collecting - although sifting may find additional shell species). Joe Cocke has offered to lead the club at the site, along with Bill Ungard.
Death Valley
March 9, 2024
March 9 & 10 - No Fossil collecting on this trip, as we will be hiking and exploring sites inside the national park. - Paleontologist Dr Torrey Nyborg will lead us into this past, pointing out clues: preserved mud cracks and water ripples frozen in time; cross-bedding indicating changes in stream flow; brain-like looking structures that provide insight to the pressures of being buried; and more. On our walks, we will view well preserved stromatolites, fossil mammal and bird tracks. We'll visit the Keane Wonder Mine to view modern stromatolites. No fossil collecting in Death Valley National Park.
Hillsboro, Texas
April 6, 2024
April 6 & 7 - Two days of fossil collecting in the Archer County Formation (Sat. & Sun) with an optional full solar eclipse on Monday (April 8). Fossils to be found include: vertebrate fossils from many reptiles, amphibians, para-reptiles, and more.
Delta, Utah
May 3, 2024
May 3, 4 & 5 - Geologist Steve Mulqueen will lead us on three days hunting fossils, but not all three days are required. We will stay in Delta each night and depart for a new site each morning. The site on May 3 may be near St. George, UT (on our return trip home). We will find trilobites (Middle Cambrian, approx. 521 MYO.), ammonites (Early Triassic, approx. 248 MYO.), petrified wood (Triassic Age, approx. 220 MYO.) and dinosaur tracks (no fossil digging).