My kids and I like to hunt for fossils and I am always looking for places. When we were in Arizona on our way from Phoenix to the Petrified Forest National Park (where it is illegal to to take any rocks) we stopped at a roadside park I learned about online that does allow you to collect fossils. The Paleo Site (also called the Naco paleo Site and the Indian Gardens Paleo Site) is located along a desolate stretch of Arizona Highway 260, about 16 miles east of Payson, just west of the Kohl’s Ranch Lodge. It was a good stopping point to stretch the legs after being the car more than an hour.
The site has turn off and a paved lot area. You walk through gate and the eroded hillside is covered in fossils from 309 million years ago from the Pennsylvanian sub-period of the Carboniferous geological period. During this period, this area of Arizona was underwater in a shallow tropical ocean. Today, the Paleo Site is about 2,000 feet above sea level. The rock containing the fossils is a mix of limestone, shale and siltstone. All three types of stone can be found at the Paleo site within 150 yards of the gate.
There are a couple signs at the entrance that give a brief geologic history of the site with pictures to show how the land evolved and the oceans drained away. There is also a basic picture guide to the t types of fossils you can find here to help the novice identify what they found.
The siltstone and shales that make up the hillside as you enter the site easily comes apart and the fossils have easily eroded out. We found an array of brachiopods (clam looking creatures), crinoid stem sections (they look like small Cheerios) and bryozoans (they look similar to modern corals). But an array of other fossils can be found that include mollusks, gastropods (snails), and sharks teeth. The limestone layers are much harder stone, but you can find crinoids and other fossils that have eroded out on the surface of the stone. The fossils here are part of the Naco formation.
The fossils are all over on the top of the ground. We also had luck along the hillside where the fossils are weathering out of the ground and along the rock face. The fossils in the mudstone unfortunately are not very stable. We found several great, detailed castings of whole brachiopods and bivalves that crumbled into pieces or dust when you touched them. But, others had their shells fairly well preserved.
The hill is part of a century old road cut that the modern highway now bypasses. You can hike about a half mile down the road.
Be careful if you climb the hillside, as it is steeper than you think and the shale and siltstone easily crumbles, gives way and is slippery.
The photos below show some of the fossils we found at the Paleo Site in about 30 minutes of looking.
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