Hello, and welcome to Ashfall Fossil Beds. We're excited you want to visit. Below are a few things you can see or do while exploring the park.
Please note, Ashfall Fossil Beds is an active research and dig site. Collecting fossils or other specimens on the park grounds is strictly prohibited.
Hubbard Rhino Barn
The highlight of most visits to the park, a boardwalk allows visitors to safely view excavated fossils in-situ while chatting with our researchers and student interns. Illustrations of the creatures discovered at Ashfall Fossil Beds line one wall of the barn, and provide a glimpse for visitors of what life may have looked like on the plains 12 million years ago.
Visitor Center
The Visitor Center houses our interpretive displays that discuss the history of the park and the volcanic eruption that doomed the animals in this ancient watering hole 12 million years ago.
The Visitor Center is air conditioned. Service animals are welcome inside. However, pets, while welcome outside in the park, are not allowed inside the center.
Working Visible Lab
Meet with our student research interns and watch as they work on actual museum specimens. Ask them questions about the fossils, park, or current research.
Nature Trails
Our park has several trails visitors can hike to explore the geology of the region, as well as the flora and fauna. Watchable wildlife signs help guests identify plants and animals to look for.
Heritage Center
Try your hand at being a paleontologist by digging for fossils inside our replica ash bed.
Picnic Pavilion
Pack a lunch for the family and enjoy the breathtaking views of 300 acres of natural prairie while enjoying your meal. Outside food is welcome in the pavilion area of the park. Alcohol is strictly prohibited.
The park is home to a variety of wildlife. Please clean up after yourselves and help us preserve the park.
Petrified
It's not just animals preserved at Ashfall Fossil Beds. Come check out this massive petrified stump found not far from the park. The stump weighed several thousand pounds and took an entire team and heavy equipment to excavate.
Gift Shop
Grab a souvenir, a wildlife plush, books about natural history or the park, or other fun science and natural history themed items in our gift shop. The gift shop is located inside the Visitor Center.
All proceeds from the gift shop support the park and museum programming.
