One of my childhood fantasies was to discover fossils. It came true today! Here is the brief story of our fossil discovery adventure.
Place of Fossils: Rock Glen Conservation Area. 8680, Rock Glen Road, Arkona, Ontario
Distance from my home in Toronto: 258 km, about 2.5 hours drive (cost in gas: maybe 50-00 or less)
Entry fee: 4-00$ per person
Lots of parking available. Lesser people than I expected (on a Sunday)...probably not as popular due to it's distance from the more populated cities of Ontario.
No mosquitoes, not hot or humid (at least today) and makes for a very pleasant walk.
You should take your own food and water as the nearest place to get food is in London, which is at least 55 km or 45 minutes drive away.(you drive through fields and farms to reach this place and the few ? villages we passed did not seem to have any eating places). There is nothing available at Rock Glen to eat.
Some great things about this place: you can walk in the river (from below the fall onwards) for quite a bit...it's not deep and surprisingly the rocks in the water are not slippery! It was such a pleasant experience to walk in the waters searching for fossils without worrying about slipping on algae covered rocks! The greatest thing of this place is of course the FOSSILS and the fact that it's legal to take them! I saw a huge rock (about a quintal) with the fossils visible on the surface when walking down from the waterfall. We had taken a hammer for this very purpose and tried to chip but gave up after a few seconds...I did not want to destroy that and hoped that the sight of the fossils on this rock in our path would give the joy and excitement to others walking down this path.
Peering at the rocks and pebbles strewn on the path by the river, we did not spot any fossil for the first few minutes and then my husband found his first fossil! I found many rock-colored things but they could not be rocks as they had unusual shapes...I assumed these were fossils and on googling, discovered that they are coral fossils.
The earth here some kind of sedimentary rocks which disintegrate so easily...you can break a rock with your hands...it comes off in layers like shale. the fossils are embedded in these layers of mud.
After a while we felt a bit let down that we had found only one perfect ( by perfect I mean symmetrical and unbroken) fossil and commented to a man walking by with his kids. He said no, there are plenty of fossils and his kids had found quite a few. He then looked down and immediately found a fossil! Though we demurred, he generously gave it to us! He believed that it's easier for kids to spot the fossils than us adults as 'they are closer to the ground'.
As we walked by the river we came across a spot on the bank with a ton of loose pebbles and rocks. I sat down and sifted through the pebbles with my hand and found so many fossils!
We probably spent more time driving back and forth ( at least two and half hours one way) than at Rock Glen (2 hours).
above is a rock with fossils embedded in it...not sure if they are visible in this photo
above is one of the many fossils we found...more than 400 million years old!
Above is the waterfall...lots of people, kids and even babies enjoying the waters...bathing, playing, splashing around!
above is one of the barns we saw on the way...I love these barns! It's ideal for a hoarder like me.
Place of Fossils: Rock Glen Conservation Area. 8680, Rock Glen Road, Arkona, Ontario
Distance from my home in Toronto: 258 km, about 2.5 hours drive (cost in gas: maybe 50-00 or less)
Entry fee: 4-00$ per person
Lots of parking available. Lesser people than I expected (on a Sunday)...probably not as popular due to it's distance from the more populated cities of Ontario.
No mosquitoes, not hot or humid (at least today) and makes for a very pleasant walk.
You should take your own food and water as the nearest place to get food is in London, which is at least 55 km or 45 minutes drive away.(you drive through fields and farms to reach this place and the few ? villages we passed did not seem to have any eating places). There is nothing available at Rock Glen to eat.
Some great things about this place: you can walk in the river (from below the fall onwards) for quite a bit...it's not deep and surprisingly the rocks in the water are not slippery! It was such a pleasant experience to walk in the waters searching for fossils without worrying about slipping on algae covered rocks! The greatest thing of this place is of course the FOSSILS and the fact that it's legal to take them! I saw a huge rock (about a quintal) with the fossils visible on the surface when walking down from the waterfall. We had taken a hammer for this very purpose and tried to chip but gave up after a few seconds...I did not want to destroy that and hoped that the sight of the fossils on this rock in our path would give the joy and excitement to others walking down this path.
Peering at the rocks and pebbles strewn on the path by the river, we did not spot any fossil for the first few minutes and then my husband found his first fossil! I found many rock-colored things but they could not be rocks as they had unusual shapes...I assumed these were fossils and on googling, discovered that they are coral fossils.
The earth here some kind of sedimentary rocks which disintegrate so easily...you can break a rock with your hands...it comes off in layers like shale. the fossils are embedded in these layers of mud.
After a while we felt a bit let down that we had found only one perfect ( by perfect I mean symmetrical and unbroken) fossil and commented to a man walking by with his kids. He said no, there are plenty of fossils and his kids had found quite a few. He then looked down and immediately found a fossil! Though we demurred, he generously gave it to us! He believed that it's easier for kids to spot the fossils than us adults as 'they are closer to the ground'.
As we walked by the river we came across a spot on the bank with a ton of loose pebbles and rocks. I sat down and sifted through the pebbles with my hand and found so many fossils!
We probably spent more time driving back and forth ( at least two and half hours one way) than at Rock Glen (2 hours).
Above is the waterfall...lots of people, kids and even babies enjoying the waters...bathing, playing, splashing around!
above is one of the barns we saw on the way...I love these barns! It's ideal for a hoarder like me.
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