Paleo Site Monument — Attraction in Payson

Free Paleo Era Fossil Hunting!

The Paleo site is a great place to find fossils that are millions of years old when part of North America and Arizona were under water. Fun for the whole family! Grab your children and make a day trip from the Phoenix area. This is an awesome place to learn about geology. Whether you spend 30 minutes or 3 hours, everyone will find something of interest. No experience needed!

This Paleo site is located just off the AZ-260 is marked clearly with a sign. Free parking, free entry and it has a dedicated parking area. The elevation is about 5300 feet above sea level.

Just walk past the animal barrier (barbed wire fence) and you will see a wall of shale-limestone to the right. The area best for collecting is very steep and can be challenging to climb up to since it is full of smaller pieces from previous visitors. Dig your feet in sideways and take your time and you will do fine. My five year old was able to make it up the side with a helping hand.

Bring some tools! I recommend a rock hammer, gloves, dust mask, eye protection, 3” paint brush and something to bring your specimens home in such as a basket. You will not need a sledge or chisels here as the shale-limestone will break away relatively easily with minimal effort. You will get dusty!

Work an area to a flat surface the size of a small plate and then slowly take off a thin layer at time. Use the paint brush, in between layers, to clean it off while looking for new finds. The fossils here can be small and delicate but are plentiful. Another strategy is to break off a softball size of material and then pry off pieces looking for fossils but be very gentile. You need to be very careful not to wreck the fossils.

Take your finds home and dust them off further with a paint brush in good light. You will find that there is more there than you thought. Do not try to clean these off with water as they will become mushy and crack. You can use a small amount of super glue to protect your specimens and enjoy them for years to come.

You are not likely to find any vertebrates here! Only sea shells (brachiopods, fenestrate bryozoans, bi-valve, spiriferoides, and crinoids) and other water creatures from long, long ago so don’t expect to...

It's a very barebones type experience. There are no amenities which means no restrooms and no water fountains. It's more so kind of like a rest stop on your way to Woods Canyon Lake so you can stretch out your legs. Driving in there's not really any official parking and instead there's this circular turnaround so you can just park on the sides. There's no shade.

There is no fee and no gate so you can come in whenever. At the trailhead, there is an interpretive sign but I don't recall seeing any map. From there, you just walk up a dirt rocky path. After a few minutes, there is another interpretive sign on your right that shows you what to look for in the rocks to find the fossils. I wasn't sure if that was supposed to be the dick site or if you were to keep walking. I kept walking for about 5 minutes or so and it seems like the trail just kept going. My thought is you probably are just to look around on the sides of the trail as you walk to find those fossils. Maybe I didn't look close enough but I don't think I saw any. I did however get to enjoy a nice view of the pine trees but really nothing too scenic or exciting...

Geologist here. I stopped by here on the way back from working in the field. This was a cool stop to stretch my legs and take a much needed mid-drive break. Being a rock nerd, I never turn down an opportunity to do some collecting. The rock which crops out here is the Naco Formation, a limestone unit of the Pennsylvanian, the second (younger) subdivision of the Carboniferous period. You won't find any dinosaurs here, but rather lots of small, marine invertebrates such as brachiopods, bivalves, bryozoans, corals, and gastropods. Shark teeth have been found in the Naco, but I personally didn't see any here.

Tools or digging is NOT required for this. I found plenty just by casually picking through the float - the loose material at the base of the outcrop. A lot of the fossils I found were pretty small, so don't be afraid to get on your...