Fossil Hunting in Georgia

Many, many years ago, back in 2006 to be exact, we took the kids fossil hunting. Chris had found information about a trilobite fossil site near Chatsworth. I didn't want the kids to think we were definitely going to find a fossil, so I warned them that we might come up empty handed. Boy was I wrong! We found over 20 trilobite fossils within 10 minutes!

Well, that was 7 years ago. The kids had been asking to go back there. Then last week, Chris mentioned it to a friend of ours and offered to take him and his kids out there sometime. But since it's about an hour and a half drive from home, we wanted to scope it out first to make sure it was even there before taking our friends out there!

There's an overgrown path that leads down to the Conasauga River.

There was a spot to park the car.

A closer look at the head of the path.

The path down to the river was rough and steep. There had been some definite erosion here since were here before.

The kids wasted no time looking for fossils.

There's the river.

More searching.

Look at the rock formations.

I included this picture with Chris' legs to show a size comparison.

You could just break off pieces from it with your hands. Then you would split those apart and in many cases, you would find a trilobite fossil.

 

Here's a happy girl with some fossils!

A close up of one of Hannah's fossils.

And more fossils.

Once again, we found many fossils in a very short time. We chose the best of the best to take home. 

This picture gives a better view of the path we had to take down to the river.

A better view of the overgrown path.

 

 

And for fun, here's a picture from our fossil hunt in 2006. Look how little James & Hannah were! And how young Chris was! 

 

Now we can plan another trip back with our friends.