Fossil Lake Safari — Attraction in Kemmerer

A life long dream come true at the age of 59. I am still so delighted over getting to do this. While this review might have some whining in it. I absolutely do not regret coming here and highly recommend it. But there is a learning curve. So please learn from our mistakes. 1 negative that is not this places' fault. DO NOT FOLLOW YOUR GPS without really checking into it first. We were coming from Afton WY and our GPS had us turn on to the most awful washed out dirt road I have ever been on in my life. I think it was about 7 miles later we encounter a closed gate with a sign telling us no access to the quarry and it had directions on how to get to the quarry from Kemmerer. Yikes! LOL so we risked our vehicle back down that horrible road to get back on the hwy. Thank goodness we did not damage our vehicle. Sadly that debacle with that GPS misdirection lost us a hour that was planned for digging. :'( You really want to head there from Kemmerer. The quarry is a long ways down a well maintained dirt road. We checked in, were provided with gloves, a chisel and a hammer. We were given a quick instruction on how to split the rock and find fossils. We were directed to lines of rocks laid out and asked to stay away from the quarry walls and set free to find what we could find. At this point it really is just down to luck. We made it there with only 3 hours before they closed. But with the heat and sun I don't think we could of done 4 hours. It was in the afternoon. I was so worn out. I still had not gotten my perfect fossil. I told myself that the rock I grabbed was going to have to be the last one for the day. Bingo, perfect negative and positive fish!! Then we brought our discoveries to be cut down and reloaded our stuff. I do regret that was that I was so wore out. As there were plenty of fossils we found that we were just too dang tired to haul over and load up. I now really wish we would have suffered thru loading them up. Because I wish I had them. Especially when you see how much rock shops sell these things for. Lessons learned. We ended up so sore from lifting rocks and hammering that we did not even go to the other quarry the next day as we had originally planned to do. When we retire, this place is most definitely on our list of places to come back to!! But next time I am going to be sure we are taking the correct route. Will be going in the morning or when it will be under 80 degrees and has a breeze. And take pain killers before starting our hammering away. WELL WORTH...

Amazing place! But...

I had a bit of a different experience there. First off, I didn't have that great of luck in finding any fossils. I ended up with two fish fossils which were missing the head. It honestly just comes down to the amount of luck you have combined with the amount of skill you posses, and I apparently didn't have tons of either; while many people in my group were finding dozens of complete fish and some other cool little fossils. In addition to that, I was really picky about the fossils I did find; I only settled for the best fish because there were tons and tons of fossils. The place was overflowing with them.

Despite my low haul, though, I had a AWESOME time! The staff was amazingly friendly and helpful and I learned so much about the geology and practices of fossil hunting. I never got bored, having the motivation to keep going in hopes of finding more fossils.

Shortly after I found my first and only fossils, I dropped a huge rock on my finger and cut it open. I went to the owner with a very bloody gash. He got my finger cleaned up and wrapped up good, and helped to stop me from passing out due to shock (I can't stand the sight of blood). Needless to say, I was very impressed by the service we got, the water and sodas, and great first aid.

I, of course, was done with digging after that, but I'm sure if I hadn't injured myself I would've gotten some more awesome fossils.

Would I go back...

My husband planned this as part of our vacation and I'm so glad he did. It was a really great experience. We got there a little before 3 and had booked a two hour session. Paul was the attendant who gave us a quick tour of the types of fossils we would find and made sure we got our full two hours with them closing at 5. We never felt rushed and he was so helpful and knowledgeable. What a superstar.

All the tools were supplied, including some saws where you could cut down your fossils for easier transport or shipping. We found so many fossils! Nothing really big or rare, but there were others on site that found some really big ones while we were there. You are pretty much guaranteed to find something. There were not a lot of people, but again, it was the last two hours of the day. Based on my experience, make sure to bring a hat, sunglasses, maybe a gaiter to keep the dust out of your mouth (there is a lot of dust), and possibly long pants and sturdy shoes. I wore shorts and chacos and my legs were scratched up by the end of the day, but I was so excited about the fossils, I really didn't care. We ended up taking home maybe a dozen or so. If you're traveling by plane, I recommend shipping them home.

I don't know if we'll ever be in the area again (we're from Georgia) but if we are, I would love to...