Reviews of Fossil & Prairie Center (Travel Agency)

Ashley Allen

My kids had a blast digging for fossils and exploring (they are almost 3 and 4). We gor to keep what we found. Following the trails was lovely too! The outside part is open dawn to dusk but the inside is only open 11 to 4 which was a bummer as we got there early to beat the heat. I do wish the bathrooms were a little closer to where to diggin areas are and that there was some sort of water fountain besides the one way up at the visitors center. We will be back next time we are in iowa.

Cindi Werthmuller

LOVE THIS PARK!!

Earl Netwal

As first time visitors we were impressed, but caution, there is one area where I got stuck knee deep in mud and needed help to get pulled out. A real negative, but a great location to learn and discover fossils from 350 million year ago. You cannot fail to find good examples of ancient seafloor creatures here.

Emil Schmitt

Fossils laying on the ground easy to find.

D Boehmer

Great place for family outings

Mike Groenendyk

Awesome place to explore! Great place to take the little ones and it free. Great job Floyd Co.

Jen Timmerman Brown

There's nothing else like it and every trip brings something different. Kids love it!

Megan O'Donnell

A hidden jewel of a park. There isn't much shade though so bring sunscreen and a hat! This is one of the few places in the United States that you can also legally take fossils from. Why? Because the old quarry is paved with shells and other ancient ocean critter remnants. A great place to bring kids or to explore on your own.

Mitch Weber

Beautiful fun place to explore with the kids. Find fossils for hours.

Bonfire Photography

Great place to visit and fossil hunt plus you can keep what you find.

Todd Ashby

Easy to find fossils and a pretty place to walk along the river, wetland and prairie.

John Luhring

Great place to find fossils even with little kids.

Samantha Cummings

Awesome day trip location! The visitor center is really cute and informative. It has some fish, turtles, and salamanders as well as some neat displays of animals and fossils you may find on the land. Going down into the gorge and looking through rocks for fossils with our kids was so much fun! They all loved it and want to go back. Just beware of the wet clay. We saw multiple people lose shoes in the clay. Whoops!

Robert Hunter

I did found some brachiopods and crinoids there

Joss Hay

It was like taking candy from a baby. One of the best fossil quarries I've ever been too

Scott Peterson

It has Devonian fossils that you can take home, lots of fun for the kids.

Sarah Vermeer

Fun place to take the family. Wear good shoes, but it's very easy to collect fossils as they are lying all over the place. The visitor center is also very nice - lots of hands-on activities that little ones like.

Cathy Rodriguez

Interesting things you can find. nice family outdoor time, the little museum is very nice and it's all free!

Melissa May

My kids LOVE coming here! I suggest going to the visitors center first so you know what you are looking for although they do have plaqareds that tell you at the place. There are pit toilets in the parking lot by the trail but if you go to the building next to the picnic shelter there are handicap bathrooms that are real bathrooms. Also if you want to go down the hills and have small children walk a little bit down the trail past the area with the plaques and there is a little trail that isn't as steep that leads down.

Krystal Caron

Really fun place to do some easy hiking and exploring. The kids loved the fossil hunting. Come ready with shovels, small garden tools, and hiking clothes. There's not really any signage or directions on best place to look or where to start, so visit the nature center and ask lots of questions before you head down to the quarry.

Cullin Herwig

Easy to find fossils, lots of climbing involved, very beautiful setting. The museum is well done, and small. Live animals, and pelts.

Don Asher

Missed the visitor center, and with no guide found fossils but not worth the visit.

Rita Olesen

Love taking our grandchildren here. Many fossils to be found and you can keep what you find if you want to.

Marcy Hanson

Grest day exploration with my son

Caleb Kreis

Very pretty. Easy to find seashell fossils. Fun to splash around in the water and clay.

Joe Wells

Interesting place. Nice trails around rolling prairie land. If you look hard you can find a fossil or two.

Kevin Kruse

I have driven past the sign to this place for years and now that I have a small boy very interested in fossils I decided to go see what was there. Our entire family was impressed! It was free. The museum covered some fossil history but early Iowa life as well. The old quarry was easy to get to and my kids found some very small shell fossils almost immediately. We will be back on a day when the rain stops. Worth the 10min detour from highway 218 for sure.

Shannon Mutschelknaus

My five year gives this place a 7 out of 5!

Heidi Eggers

A lot of walking on uneven ground but beautiful scenery great for kids to learn about nature and rocks make sure u bring your own shovel and buckets

Josh Beyer

Very cool park that lets you collect your own fossils. They have very well kept hiking trails. The visitor center is very nice with a lot to see in it as well. The 2 sets of outside bathrooms are a nice compliment to the set of bathrooms in the visitor center. If you plan to go off the trails and down in to the quarry, wear shoes that you don't mind if they get dirty. Be wary of wet spots because you can easily sink down into the wet clay. There are a ton of fossils to be found here and you should have no problem finding any if you look. The old kilns towards the back of the park are really neat to see as well. Overall this is a very nice park.

Charlene Molina

we were invited by ZRS Fossils to their fossil finding event in Rockford Iowa and very pleasant experience. Would highly recommend visiting here but be very careful as the rocks are not steady and it is very easy to fall, and slip. Otherwise you will find very cool fossils and this park has a bathroom as well

Jonathan Hoback

It was a neat place to visit on a cloudy but not rainy day. It isn't really handicapped accessible to get to the fossil digging areas. Would recommend sturdy shoes and avoiding the area when it is wet as there are definitely slippery areas prone to washout. With young kids, you would need to keep a very close eye on them as it is the site of an old quarry so the hills are very steep and deep. We found a lot of fossilized seashells and the like. Sorry, if you are looking for dinosaur bones. I would recommend another spot though. God's creations are neat in every stage of life.

Gail Schwartzkopf

Love this place will definitely go back again.

BlackEarth Java

What fun for the whole family! Lots of little seashell fossils. We took the grandson and had lots of fun. Very steep, so wear good shoes and find good ways down. Don't expect any big fossils, but lots of fun!

Doreen Corley

Amazing place for an adventure

Ryan Currens

Tons of fossils you can't walk around without stepping on fossils great place to visit. My three-year-old was Finding fossils there so abundant.

James Moos

Wonderful place! Very quiet and relaxing but also interesting with the prairie grasses and fossils! Great rural place to find something new!

Kyle Patrick

Really cool, fun place to explore!

amy wait

Beautiful place

Robert Meyer

This is a must see/do for anybody interested in rocks and fossils.

Corwin Smidt

We were there when the center was closed, but the fossil trail was well marked and the signage informative. Kids had a blast. Easy to find fossils and the bathrooms were clean.

Logan Williams

What a blast! Free to do and you get to keep the fossils you find. You'll also find a whole lot of fossils from the second you look down. Definitely go to the visitors center first!!

Ryan Hedum

Cephalopods and Gastropods and Brachiopods, Oh My! There isn't a whole lot of diversity here, but it's a great place to bring amateur paleontologists or those looking to expand their marine invertebrate collection

Christian Kapler

There is fishing there. River access. And you can hunt for fossils. Great picnic facilities and clean restrooms

Jessica Howell

Great walking trails. Fossil hunting was a lot of fun and an experience you can't just find everywhere.

Matthew Fabiszak

We had a blast exploring and finding many small fossils with our three young children. Highly recommend! There are flushable toilets and a drinking fountain at the parking lot. Bring water for the hike around and fossil hunting.

MM Ries

Found lots of fossils without having to do a lot of climbing on and in the fossil pits!

Caleb Wolff

This was loads of fun! Bring your hiking boots!

Eric Chriswisser

Nice history lesson on the area. Visitors center was great. Fossils are everywhere. No joke they are just lying everywhere.

Steve Strasheim

Tosanak Rec Area: My family and I camped here over Labor Day Weekend. What a hidden gem!! This place offers trails, rentable cabins, river access, a modern playground, and lots of camping opportunities. This particular weekend we enjoyed the WHOLE area all to ourselves, no one else was there...very odd for being such a nice place on a busy camping weekend. I highly recommend people check this place out, you won't run out of things to explore.

Amber Essary

Great place to go! Found lots of fossils including brachiopods, crinoid columns, clams, Bryozoa, and many more!

Caroline Weiss

It was a lot of fun digging for fossils. Bring lots of water, you're out in the open here.

Renee Albert

Not handicap accessible!

Iam Me

A perfect place to visit if you like to get outdoors. Fossil hunting is pretty amazing. You'll find a vast variety of all sorts of fossils. Trails to hike. The scenery is extraordinary too.

Raquela Sgro-Gibson

All around great place for a family trip. Located just outside the small Iowa town of Rockford, you can visit the Fossil and Prairie Park, a former quarry and brick making site that discovered it was sitting on a pocket of Devonian fossils. It's a bit of a trip from most major areas as it's located in a secluded section of northern Iowa. The park is basically open year round and it's free to enter and collect fossils. The only caveat is that the fossils may not be sold. Amazingly, the fossils can be found just lying on the ground and on the hills. Small buckets are recommended for collection. You can see what fossils are common at the site by visiting the park's website, but it's mostly brachiopods, with crinoids, bryozoans and corals. There is a visitor center open during the summer months and lots of walking trails. If you somehow get tired of collecting fossils, take a quick walk over to the abandoned beehive brick kilns.

Tom LeHew

Was a lot of fun (if you like fossils). Bring something to put your fossils in and wear old clothes and shoes. Maybe muddy and some climbing too if you are adventurous.

Paul ODonnell

We had a great time searching for fossils

Jacob Fritz

One of the few places in the country where they let you take as many fossils as you like. The first time here you'll think you're walking on gravel, but you'll look down and see fossils everywhere. There are high quality brachiopod, coral, crinoid, cephalopod, and other kinds of fossils here.

Justin Scott

Cool place for the kids.

Tonda Hadden

Good place for kids

Christopher White

This is a great place to collect fossils with kids. The fossils are loose on the surface and many of them are in good condition. My daughter wants to go back!

Nicholas Enslow

The lady in the museum area was intelligent and I could tell she was there because she enjoyed speaking with the guests. She gave us some pails for the kids as we set off to dig for some fossils. This was not before showing the kids some of the more interesting things in the museum area. The kids ended up with several fossils that they took to show and tell at the daycare. If I ever make my way back up to Rockford, IA we'll be sure to visit the Fossil & Prairie Center again!

Water Hawk

Fantastic visit today. Top notch staff at the visitor center. Kids loved the fossil site and had a blast digging and discovering. The trails are clearly marked and if you go past the kilns on the far side of the area there is a bridge that crosses the river with cool picture spots. Highly recommend just bring extra shoes if you step in soft clay and water if it hot out to stay hydrated.