Montour Fossil Pit
The Montour Fossil Pit at the Montour Preserve in Danville, Pennsylvania is an easy 0.3-mile out-and-back universally-accessible walk that leads to the shale hillside where visitors can search for ancient fossilized creatures.This is not a hike but rather a short walk to a shale hillside where you can scavenge the rocks to find fossils of ancient coral, cephalopods, trilobites, and gastropods. Visitors will have to put in plenty of work to find any interesting fossils - and there's no guarantee you'll find any. Breaking rocks apart to find odd shapes and patterns in the rock is a good first start and you might be lucky enough to find bits and pieces of fossils lying in the rocks. On our first trip here, we found about 4 fossils in total - 2 coral and 2 brachiopods; however, we forgot a hammer which would have made searching a bit easier, but brought some interesting rocks home to further investigate.
Parking
Visitors will find two parking lots at the trailhead, with one lot located across the street. Total parking can handle over a dozen vehicles at the fossil pit as of July 2023.
Hours
The fossil pit is open from dawn to dusk each day, year-round.
Universal Access
This trail should be considered universally-accessible due to its flat grade, crushed stone, and wide path. Once the grade begins to head up the shale hillside is where the universal access ends.
No Pets
Dogs are not allowed at Montour Preserve, please leave your furry friend(s) at home. Note that service dogs are allowed at Montour Preserve; however.
Fossil Hunting - What to Bring
If planning to hunt for fossils here, it's smart to bring some of the following items: a hammer, safey goggles or sunglasses, small brush, bag or small container to store your findings, plenty of drinking water, a hat, and sunscreen. You may keep any fossils you find.
Warning
Sun exposure: This area is fully open to the sun and gets baked pretty hard especially during mid-day sun. The dark rocks soak up a lot of heat as well, so plan to bring plenty of drinking water, sunscreen, and a hat if you plan to stay long.
History
Translated from the information sign: "Fossils found in the Montour Preserve's Fossil Pit originated from creatures that lived in the Devonian Period, roughly 395 million yeas ago, when much of Pennsylvania, including this area, was covered by warm, shallow seas. Many of the sediments left behind by that sea eventually transformed over time into either limestone or shale. The Devonian Period is sometimes referred to as the 'Age of Ferns an Fishes'. Scale trees, scale ferns, and horestails evolved to form the first primitive forests... Fossils found at the Montour Preserve come from a time roughly 116 million years before the rise of the dinosaurs."
