Field Trips
Collect, Tour, and Explore!
Field trips are fun experiences for all ages! For safety and insurance purposes, an active Membership is required to attend field trips, and a guardian must be present along with anyone that is younger than 18 years old. RSVPs are handled on a first-come first-served basis. Some trips have a high attendance limit, but many have a low limit, so it enhances everyone's experience if you RSVP/cancel promptly.
Fossil Collecting
Trips to collect usually take place in the Southern California area, but trips periodically travel much further! Members have had the opportunity to collect specimens such as trilobites from the Lower Cambrian, shark teeth and mammal bones from the Miocene, and sand dollars from the Pliocene. (Don't know your Eras from your Epoch's? Download our free "Ages of the Earth" poster PDF here!)
Museum and Locality Tours
Touring trips give SoCalPaleo Members access to view important paleontological sites across the American West, or they give Members access to behind-the-scenes tours at notable museums!
Calendar
September 26, 2026
Chivo Canyon (near Simi Valley)
Sept 26, 2026: THIS TRIP IS FULL. (The limit has been reached).
Members will do an easy walk for about a mile collecting marine fossils, mainly gastropod mollusks, with Turritella (sea snails) being the most common genus found. The fossils are found in the Llajas geological formation of Chivo Canyon, and are from the early to middle Eocene (around 50 million years ago). Nice trip for younger members.
EVERY PARTICIPANT MUST HAVE A CURRENT SCPS MEMBERSHIP ON THE DAY OF THE TRIP.Sept
Trip Leader:
Zach Mekelburg
Active Members, RSVP to Attend:
October 9, 2026
Hazen, Nevada quarry and 2 or 3 other Nevada sites
Oct. 9 - 11, 2026 - Limit is 25 members. As of Sept. 7, there is room for 2 or 3 more members.
Fee: About $25 - $30 per person, regardless of age.
There may be an optional activity that may cost about $15 - $20.
Thursday, Oct. 8: Travel day. Members will drive to Fallon, Nevada (near Reno). Check into hotel.
Friday, Oct. 9: Our adventure begins with collecting fish fossils at the Hazen quarry. We have been given
permission to collect fossils at an inactive quarry owned by a large corporation. We had
been there the past two years. Three-spine Stickleback fish and Nevada Killifish from
the Miocene epoch are plentiful.
Saturday morning, Oct. 10: We will visit a fossil leaf site, about 40 miles east of Fallon, NV.
Saturday afternoon: We will caravan from the fossil leaves site to a site a few miles north of Fallon to
collect marine fossils.
Saturday evening: For those interested, we will have a group dinner in Fallon.
Sunday, Oct. 11: Members will travel about an hour south of Fallon to Schurz, Nevada.
We will visit a Fossil and Rock shop owned by our guides, John and Chelsea Keady.
Sunday ~10:30 am: Led by John Keady, members will caravan to New York Canyon to collect ammonites.
Sunday afternoon: The trip is over. Members can drive home, or visit Virginia City or Bodie Ghost Town etc.
EVERY PARTICIPANT MUST HAVE A CURRENT SCPS MEMBERSHIP ON THE DAY OF THE TRIP.
Trip Leader:
Dennis Rainey
Active Members, RSVP to Attend:
November 14, 2026
White Whale Quarry at Sharktooth Hill (Sean and Lisa Tohill's property)
The trip is full. The limit has been reached.
We will collect Miocene marine fossils at Lisa and Sean Tohill's White Whale Quarry on Shark Tooth Hill.
Cost: $30. per person (Cash, paid to property owner)
EVERY PARTICIPANT MUST HAVE A CURRENT SCPS MEMBERSHIP ON THE DAY OF THE TRIP.
Trip Leader:
Mimi Anaya
Active Members, RSVP to Attend:
December 6, 2026
Holiday Party - Sunday December 6 at the LANHM - No Field Trip
Trip Leader:
Active Members, RSVP to Attend:
January 23, 2027
Newport Aquatic Center (Newport Back Bay)
Jan 23, 2027
Located behind the Newport Aquatic Center, our site is part of the Palos Verdes Sand formation. 100,000-year-old Pleistocene shells are abundant and easy to find. Easy walk. Mostly surface collecting. Little or no digging.
Great for kids.
EVERY PARTICIPANT MUST HAVE A CURRENT SCPS MEMBERSHIP ON THE DAY OF THE TRIP.
Trip Leader:
Bill Ungar and Joe Cocke
Active Members, RSVP to Attend:
February 20, 2027
Ocotillo and San Diego Natural History Museum
Not confirmed.
Feb 20
If not, then --> Feb 13 or 27
Here is a brief summary. More information is coming.
Feb 20, Saturday afternoon: Behind-the-scenes tour of the San Diego Natural History Museum
Feb 21, Sunday: Collect marine fossils near Ocotillo, CA
EVERY PARTICIPANT MUST HAVE A CURRENT SCPS MEMBERSHIP ON THE DAY OF THE T
Trip Leader:
Dennis Rainey and Kwasi Gilbert
Active Members, RSVP to Attend:
March 13, 2027
Shark Tooth Hill (Caruso property)
March13, 2027 - There is a $75. fee to be paid to the property owner. Limit is 30.
Fossils commonly found here include shark teeth, whale or dolphin bones / vertebrae, etc. They have been identified as belonging to the Round Mountain Silt Formation, Miocene in age (15 - 16 million years old).
Most members will spend Friday night in a Bakersfield hotel because we will meet about 10 miles outside of Bakersfield about 8 am Saturday morning. Recommendation: Make your hotel reservation so that it can be cancelled. There is always a possibility the trip date will change. And, with El Nino weather projected, rain could cause the trip to be cancelled.
NOTE: There are two Shark Tooth Hill trips planned. This one is March 13. The next one is May 8. To allow more members to participate, members can only sign up for one trip. If a member signs up for the March 13 trip, they can sign up for the Wait List of the May 8 trip.
EVERY PARTICIPANT MUST HAVE A CURRENT SCPS MEMBERSHIP ON THE DAY OF THE TRIP.
Trip Leader:
Steve Victor and Misty Kueneman
Active Members, RSVP to Attend:
April 10, 2027
Capitola Beach
Saturday, April 10, 2027 - Capitola Beach
Limit is 20 (as of 9/7/2026, 12 members are signed up (room for 8 more).
No fee, but possibly a fee to park in a parking lot near the fossil site.
Members will walk the sandy shoreline by Capitola Beach in search of late Pliocene marine fossils in the Purisma Formation. On Saturday, April 10, at 8:00 am, there is a -0.51 negative tide, which is good for walking the shoreline in search of fossils. At higher tide, significant parts of the beach are inaccessible.
EVERY PARTICIPANT MUST HAVE A CURRENT SCPS MEMBERSHIP ON THE DAY OF THE TRIP.
Trip Leader:
Tanielle Redman
Active Members, RSVP to Attend:
May 8, 2027
Shark Tooth Hill (Caruso property)
May 8, 2027 - There is a $75. fee to be paid to the property owner. Limit is 30.
NOTE: Members who do not participate in the Caruso STH trip in March will have first priority. Those who participate in the March trip can sign to be on the Wait List for this trip. After March 14, 2027, members
on the May 8 Wait List members will be added (up to the trip limit).
Fossils commonly found here include shark teeth, whale or dolphin bones / vertebrae, etc. They have been identified as belonging to the Round Mountain Silt Formation, Miocene in age (15 - 16 million years old).
Most members will spend Friday night in a Bakersfield hotel because we will meet about 10 miles outside of Bakersfield about 8 am Saturday morning. Recommendation: Make your hotel reservation so that it can be cancelled. There is always a possibility the trip date will change. And, with El Nino weather projected, rain could cause the trip to be cancelled.
EVERY PARTICIPANT MUST HAVE A CURRENT SCPS MEMBERSHIP ON THE DAY OF THE TRIP.
Trip Leader:
Steve Victor and Misty Kueneman
Active Members, RSVP to Attend:
June 19, 2027
Isla Vista
June 19, 2026
Members will find various marine fossils, including clams, oysters, mussels and some gastropods from the late Pleistocene epoch.
Nice beach location! Great for young fossil collectors. Limit = 35
EVERY PARTICIPANT MUST HAVE A CURRENT SCPS MEMBERSHIP ON THE DAY OF THE TRIP.
Trip Leader:
TBD
Active Members, RSVP to Attend:
August 9, 2027
WY Dino trip
DATE IS APPROXIMATE - Final dates of the trip, as well as other specifics will be determined in the coming months. We did this trip in August. 2026, with members finding some very special fossils.
Members will visit two or three localities in eastern Wyoming. At one or two locations, dinosaur bones and teeth can be found. And at one or two locations, members will visit a formation of the Oligocene epoch, where mammal fossils, like oreodont, rabbit and deer, as well as tortoises can be found. After these site, members will head west, toward home, stopping at two more locations. One will be American Fossil Quarry in Kemmerer, where members will collect Eocene fossil fish.
Trip Leader:
Steve Victor and Dennis Rainey
Active Members, RSVP to Attend:
September 18, 2027
Chivo Canyon
Sept 18, 2027: Members will do an easy walk for about a mile collecting marine fossils, mainly gastropod mollusks, with Turritella (sea snails) being the most common genus found. The fossils are found in the Llajas geological formation of Chivo Canyon, and are from the early to middle Eocene (around 50 million years ago). Nice trip for younger members. No Limit.
EVERY PARTICIPANT MUST HAVE A CURRENT SCPS MEMBERSHIP ON THE DAY OF THE TRIP.
Trip Leader:
Zach Mekelburg