Stonerose Interpretive Center & Eocene Fossil Site — Attraction in Republic

My son & I drove almost 3 hours one way, ( June 21, '25) from our home in Spokane, to visit the fossil digs at Stonerose Interpretive center in Republic. We brought our own tools, etc planning to spend several hours at the dig site. Well there really wasn't any rock (shale) left to split. It was old diggings that had already thoroughly been gone through prior to us. We were disappointed that more rock had not been pulled from the bank for people to work through. The bank itself was roped off from anyone getting to the rocks that hadn't yet been worked. It was an expensive outing for almost no fossil find to bring home. The dig site parking area is poor, and this site is not at all accessible for anyone who is disabled as in, in a wheelchair or on crutches. Or who needs a walking aid of any kind. If you are old, or very young, or you have bad knees or foot problems, forget this dig site altogether. It wasn't fun! Also we did not see facilities for using a bathroom. This was not explained to us while at the center before paying $30 ( for 2 people) to dig, nor is it on their website. We found this place highly difficult to navigate on the steep, loose shale as both my son & I have a disability in walking and were reduced to crawling around on all fours at times to prowl through the shale. Luckily I do have a mighty large service dog who was able to keep me from falling when trying to walk, or I wouldn't even have attempted getting out of our car. I guess for many people this would be worth it, but for us, it was not worth 6 hours of...

This is one place that I wish I had planned to spend the whole day. There is a cute park across the street, perfect place to let the kids run, eat a packed lunch, fill up water bottles, after the long drive there. The staff at Stonerose was helpful, we only had an hour left before the site closed but they were just as kind and friendly as could be. I definitely recommend renting a set of tools, the smaller tools work the best. While it is only a two block walk from the center to the site, there is some shoulder parking up at the site for a couple cars (Be careful, the shoulder has a rut that could mess up your car.) We saw wild turkeys while we were digging, the kids had a hard time getting up the hill side but they eventually made it and had a lot of fun. Don't forget to bring your box for rocks up with you, it will be almost impossible to carry stuff down...

Definitely wear shoes that you can walk up a hill covered in sharp rocks and pants not shorts. It takes some skill to figure out how to find the rocks with nice layers, and then tap them hard enough to split them along the seam but not shatter them. Many of the slabs are small, so it’s hard to get complete specimens. Overall a very cool experience. I’d definitely do this again if I lived close. Bring drinks and a hat if it’s sunny. Many of the people who go there regularly brought 5 gallon buckets to be able to move rocks to the tables if you’d rather not sit on the ground. The employees were also...