Permitted Pursuits

Outdoor Hobby Regulations · Verified from Official Sources

Fossil Hunting — Rules, Permits & Legal Sites

Collecting fossils on public land is governed by federal law that separates invertebrate and plant fossils (collectable under personal-use rules) from vertebrate fossils (prohibited on all federal land without a research permit). Each guide covers the rules for the specific location, the fossil types present, and where the lines are.

Browse locations How the rules work

Verified locations

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Colorado

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Prohibited

Garden Park Fossil Area

Colorado, Fremont·Fossil Hunting

Fossil collecting is prohibited across all of Garden Park Fossil Area — a BLM Area of Critical Environmental Concern where even invertebrate fossils, normally open to casual collecting on BLM land, cannot be removed.

  • All fossil and rock collecting is closed across the entire Garden Park Fossil Area, not just vertebrate material — the site carries a triple protective designation (BLM Area of Critical Environmental Concern since 1996, Colorado Research Natural Area since 1991, and National Natural Landmark, expanded to 3,208 acres in 2013) that closes the area to consumptive resource use altogether
  • This is stricter than the PRPA default most BLM fossil sites on this list follow, where invertebrate and plant fossils stay open to casual collecting of up to 25 lb per person per day (43 CFR 49.810) while only vertebrate material is restricted — Garden Park's ACEC/Research Natural Area status removes that invertebrate carve-out entirely at this specific site
Prohibited

Picket Wire Canyonlands

Colorado, Otero·Fossil Hunting

Every dinosaur track at Picket Wire Canyonlands is a vertebrate trace fossil, covered by PRPA's ban on casual collecting — this site is observation-only.

  • Every one of the site's 1,900-plus dinosaur tracks is a vertebrate trace fossil, and the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act prohibits casual collection of vertebrate material from federal land without a research permit — there's no invertebrate-collecting carve-out here the way there is at most fossil sites on this list, because the exposed bedrock is essentially the trackway surface itself
  • Access requires real planning, not a collecting permit: either an 11.2-mile round-trip hike, bike, or horseback trip from Withers Canyon Trailhead, or a reserved seat on a Forest Service-guided high-clearance 4x4 tour offered only on specific Saturdays in April, May, September, and October

Florida

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Allowed

Peace River

Florida, Desoto·Fossil Hunting

Shark teeth need no permit on the Peace River; bone needs Florida's $5 fossil permit. FDEP says state lands from Bartow to Wauchula are closed to collecting.

  • Fossil shark and ray teeth, invertebrate fossils and fossil plants may be collected and kept with or without a permit (Florida Museum of Natural History)
  • Vertebrate fossils — bone, horse and mammoth teeth, turtle shell, dugong rib — from the river bottom require a Florida Fossil Permit; the fee is capped at $5 by Fla. Stat. § 1004.576
Allowed

Venice Beach

Florida, Sarasota·Fossil Hunting

Fossil shark teeth need no permit at Venice Beach. But the ordinance that allows them exempts material that washes up, not material you dig out.

  • Shark and stingray teeth, invertebrate fossils and fossil plants are exempt from the Florida Fossil Permit and may be kept for personal use
  • Vertebrate bone — whale, dugong, horse, tapir, Ice Age mammal — collected from state land requires a Florida Fossil Permit from the Florida Museum of Natural History, capped by statute at $5

Maryland

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Allowed

Calvert Cliffs State Park

Maryland, Calvert·Fossil Hunting

Miocene shark teeth may be collected from the beach at Calvert Cliffs State Park, but the cliffs that produce them are closed — climbing them or walking beneath them is prohibited, and collecting from the cliff face is illegal.

  • Collecting is limited to fossils already lying loose on the beach and in the surf zone, plus material in blocks that have fallen from the cliffs — no permit and no fee beyond parking.
  • Collecting from the cliffs themselves is illegal, and climbing on or walking beneath them is prohibited outright because of active landslide risk.
Allowed

Purse State Park (Purse Area, Nanjemoy WMA)

Maryland, Charles·Fossil Hunting

Shark-tooth hunting on the Potomac beach at Purse is allowed, and Maryland DNR promotes it. Collect loose material on the shoreline only: the cliffs are off-limits and artifacts can't be kept.

  • Collect loose fossils and shark teeth on the beach shoreline only; Maryland DNR says fossils embedded in the cliffs and riverbanks are protected
  • Purse is no longer a state park: it's the Purse Area of Nanjemoy Wildlife Management Area, so the wildlife-area rules in COMAR 08.03.02 apply

Montana

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Allowed

Hell Creek (BLM, Montana)

Montana, Garfield·Fossil Hunting

The BLM-administered lands in the Hell Creek area of northeastern Montana allow casual collection of invertebrate fossils and petrified wood under PRPA 2009 — 25 lbs/day, no permit. The dinosaur bones this formation is famous for are vertebrate fossils under PRPA and may not be casually collected. The distinction catches nearly every first-time visitor.

  • Common invertebrate fossils (ammonites, bivalves, marine snails from the underlying Bearpaw Shale) and plant fossils may be casually collected, up to 25 lb per person per day, non-commercial (PRPA 2009 / 43 CFR 49.810). Petrified wood has its own federal limit: 25 lb plus one piece per day, 250 lb per year (43 CFR 3622.4)
  • CRITICAL: Dinosaur bones, teeth, and tracks — and all other vertebrate material — may NOT be casually collected under any circumstances; research permit required from BLM Miles City Field Office; removal is a federal felony
Prohibited

Judith River Formation (Judith Landing)

Montana, Fergus·Fossil Hunting

Fossil collecting is prohibited at the Judith River Formation exposures near Judith Landing — corrects the standard BLM assumption. The Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument's approved management plan bans personal collection of invertebrate fossils and plant material here, not just vertebrates.

  • Unlike standard BLM land, where PRPA 2009 allows casual collection of invertebrate and plant fossils, the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument's approved Resource Management Plan specifically prohibits personal collection of invertebrate fossils, petrified wood, and plant material anywhere within the monument's roughly 377,346 acres
  • This ban applies to the classic Judith River Formation exposures at and around Judith Landing, where the river's lower reach — inside the monument boundary — is the formation's namesake location
Allowed

Two Medicine Formation (Bynum/Choteau)

Montana, Teton·Fossil Hunting

Casual fossil collecting here runs through a private guided-dig program in Bynum, not free BLM land — Egg Mountain itself is closed to the public.

  • The realistic way most visitors dig Two Medicine Formation fossils is through the Montana Dinosaur Center's paid guided Fossil Expeditions in Bynum ($110 for a half-day site tour, $225 for an 8-hour day-dig, June–September), on the Center's own private/leased active sites — not free casual collecting on public land
  • Egg Mountain, the formation's most famous locality and the site of the original 1978–79 Maiasaura nesting discoveries, is private property owned by the Museum of the Rockies (Bozeman) and closed to public access entirely — it is not open for a visit at any price, guided or otherwise

New Jersey

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Allowed

Big Brook Preserve

New Jersey, Monmouth·Fossil Hunting

Fossil hunting at Big Brook needs no permit for small groups, but Monmouth County and Colts Neck each set their own limits on the same creek.

  • No permit or fee for individuals. Monmouth County caps groups at 10 without a Naturalist-led program, and Colts Neck requires a $25 permit for groups of 15–29 and $50 for 30 or more.
  • Collect only in the stream itself. Both codes ban digging into or extracting fossils from the banks above the waterline.

North Carolina

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Allowed

Aurora Fossil Museum Fossil Park

North Carolina, Beaufort·Fossil Hunting

Fossil collecting is free at the Aurora Fossil Museum's two public pits, and everything you find is yours to keep — shark teeth and whale bone included.

  • Collecting is confined to the two public pits in the Fossil Park across Main Street from the museum. The Nutrien phosphate mine that supplies the material is an active industrial site and has not admitted public fossil collectors since 2009.
  • Digging tool handles must be under 36 inches — a garden trowel or small hand rake, not a shovel. Screens are capped at 12 in × 12 in with 1/4-inch maximum mesh.

South Carolina

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Allowed

Folly Beach

South Carolina, Charleston·Fossil Hunting

Shark teeth can be collected on the City of Folly Beach strand with no permit, but county rules bar removing materials at both county-run ends of the island.

  • No permit to pick up fossil shark teeth on the city beach, from the dry sand down through the wet sand exposed on a falling tide
  • State jurisdiction starts at the mean low-water mark. Collecting fossils from the bottom below that line requires a SCIAA Hobby License, which allows hand pickup only and no tools, digging or sifting.
Prohibited

Huntington Beach State Park

South Carolina, Georgetown·Fossil Hunting

Fossil and shark-tooth collecting is prohibited at Huntington Beach State Park under S.C. Code § 51-3-145, even though South Carolina's own tourism materials list it as a top shark-tooth beach.

  • S.C. Code § 51-3-145 bars removing any rock, mineral, or geological feature from a South Carolina state park without a Department-issued permit, and SC State Parks' own FAQ applies that rule to fossils and minerals
  • No public application process for a casual fossil-collecting permit is published — the statute's permit clause exists for research or institutional use, not day visitors

South Dakota

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Prohibited

Badlands National Park

South Dakota, Pennington Jackson·Fossil Hunting

Fossil collecting is prohibited at Badlands National Park under NPS regulations and PRPA 2009. The White River Badlands contain the richest Oligocene mammal fossil record on Earth — none of it can be collected, but significant finds are exposed by erosion and must be reported to a ranger.

  • All fossil collection is prohibited under NPS regulations (36 CFR 2.1) and PRPA 2009 — this applies to all material including surface fragments and isolated bone chips
  • Do not pick up, move, or pocket any fossil material — even temporarily, before 'replacing' it, is a violation

Utah

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Prohibited

Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry — BLM

Utah, Emery·Fossil Hunting

Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry is a BLM-managed National Natural Landmark containing the densest concentration of Jurassic dinosaur fossils ever discovered — over 12,000 bones from 74 individuals representing 16+ species have been excavated here. Fossil collection is completely prohibited: the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (PRPA) prohibits casual collection of vertebrate fossils on all federal land. The quarry is open for observation and education; a small visitor center interprets the site's paleontological significance.

  • All public fossil collection is prohibited under the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (PRPA, 16 U.S.C. §§ 470aaa et seq.) — applies to all vertebrate fossils on all federal land including BLM
  • Unlike some BLM casual-use sites, Cleveland-Lloyd's status as a National Natural Landmark and active research quarry means even surface invertebrate fossil collection is not permitted
Verify Locally

Coyote Buttes / Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness

Utah, Kane·Fossil Hunting

The Coyote Buttes permit lottery controls who can enter — it does not settle whether fossils can be collected. Trace fossils in the Navajo Sandstone here, including documented dinosaur tracks, fall under a Wilderness and National Monument overlay with no published casual-collection policy.

  • A day-use hiking permit from the Recreation.gov lottery is mandatory just to enter Coyote Buttes North or South — but that permit authorizes access to the area, not fossil collecting; the two are separate legal questions
  • No published BLM decision specific to casual invertebrate or plant fossil collecting within the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument / Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness overlay could be located as of July 2026 — contact the Arizona Strip Field Office at (435) 688-3200 before removing any fossil material
Prohibited

Dinosaur National Monument

Utah, Uintah·Fossil Hunting

Fossil collection is strictly prohibited at Dinosaur National Monument under NPS regulations and the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act. The monument was established specifically to protect Late Jurassic fossils — including Allosaurus, Stegosaurus, Diplodocus, and Camarasaurus — and contains one of the most significant vertebrate fossil deposits in the world. The Carnegie Quarry Exhibit Hall allows visitors to observe over 1,500 fossil bones still embedded in the cliff face.

  • All fossil collection by the public is strictly prohibited at Dinosaur National Monument under 36 CFR § 2.1(a)(1) and the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (16 U.S.C. §§ 470aaa et seq.)
  • The prohibition covers all fossils including invertebrates, plants, trace fossils, and vertebrate material — regardless of size, perceived scientific significance, or location within the monument

Wyoming

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Allowed

Como Bluff

Wyoming, Carbon·Fossil Hunting

Como Bluff is open for casual collection of invertebrate and plant fossils from the Sundance and Morrison Formations. The dinosaur fossils that made this site famous — Diplodocus, Camarasaurus, Stegosaurus — are vertebrate material and prohibited from casual collection under PRPA 2009.

  • Invertebrate and plant fossils: casual collection allowed up to 25 lb per person per day on BLM land under PRPA 2009 and 43 CFR 49.810
  • Vertebrate fossils (dinosaur bones, teeth, tracks, and any fish or reptile material): prohibited from casual collection — all vertebrate material must be left in place
Prohibited

Fossil Butte National Monument

Wyoming, Lincoln·Fossil Hunting

All fossil collecting is prohibited at Fossil Butte National Monument under 36 CFR 2.1 — the federal casual-collection allowance that applies to nearby BLM land does not extend to National Park Service units. Private fee-dig quarries three minutes from the visitor center offer the legal alternative.

  • Collecting any fossil, rock, or natural object is prohibited under 36 CFR 2.1(a)(1) — this covers surface fragments and loose shale pieces, not just intact specimens
  • PRPA 2009's casual-collection allowance for invertebrate and plant fossils applies only to BLM and Bureau of Reclamation land under 43 CFR Part 49 — it does not extend to National Park Service units, so 'it's just a fish fossil' is not an exception here
Allowed

Green River Formation (BLM)

Wyoming, Lincoln·Fossil Hunting

The Green River Formation's famous Knightia fish are vertebrate material — casual collecting on open BLM land near Kemmerer does not include them, despite widespread mislabeling as an invertebrate fossil. Plant and insect fossils are casually collectable under PRPA 2009; the fish come only from fee-dig quarries on leased or private ground.

  • Common invertebrate and plant fossils (insects, plant impressions, ostracods) may be casually collected on open BLM land. The limit is 25 lb per person per day, no permit, under PRPA 2009 and 43 CFR 49.810
  • CRITICAL: Knightia and all other Green River fish are vertebrate material, not invertebrate, despite frequent mislabeling — casual collecting does not cover them on BLM land under any circumstance

Rules & regulations

How the rules work for fossil hunting

Federal fossil law in the US runs on a two-tier system, and the line between the tiers is the single most important thing a fossil collector needs to understand before going out.

Tier one — invertebrate and plant fossils (shells, echinoids, leaf impressions, coral, plant compressions): collectable on BLM and national forest land up to 25 lbs per day for personal use, no permit required. Tier two — vertebrate fossils (bone, teeth, tracks of any backboned animal — fish, amphibians, reptiles, dinosaurs, mammals): prohibited on all federal land without a scientific research permit, regardless of how small, fragmentary, or common the specimen looks.

The law is the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (PRPA, 2009). It applies to BLM, NPS, USFS, FWS, and BOR land. There is no casual exception for vertebrate material.

What you can collect and where

Fossil typeBLM landNational ForestNational ParkState land
Common invertebrates (shells, echinoids)Yes — 25 lb/person/dayYes — 25 lb/day, 100 lb/yearNoVaries by state
Plant fossils (leaf compressions)Yes — 25 lb/person/dayYes — 25 lb/day, 100 lb/yearNoVaries by state
Petrified woodYes — 25 lb + 1 piece/day, 250 lb/yearCheck forest planNoVaries by state
Vertebrate fossils (any)No — PRPANo — PRPANoVaries; most states prohibit
Scientifically significant findsReport — do not collectReport — do not collectReport — do not collectVaries

Based on PRPA (16 U.S.C. §§ 470aaa et seq.), 43 CFR 49.810 (BLM fossils), 36 CFR 291.5 (Forest Service fossils) and 43 CFR 3622.4 (BLM petrified wood) as of 2026. Individual areas can be closed or given lower limits. State rules vary significantly — check individual location pages.

Vertebrate fossils: prohibited on all federal land — no size exception

The PRPA does not have a minimum size threshold. A 2-inch fish vertebra from a roadcut on BLM land is as prohibited as a complete dinosaur skeleton. The test is whether the material is from a vertebrate animal — not how large, complete, or scientifically significant it is.

If you find what appears to be vertebrate material: leave it where it is, record the GPS location, and report it to the local BLM field office or land manager. Voluntary reporting is the correct response. Removal without a permit is a federal violation.

How to identify the tier your find falls into

Likely collectable (invertebrates / plants): Shells, clam and oyster imprints, echinoid (sea urchin) tests, crinoid stems, brachiopods, coral, ammonites, leaf and stem compressions, plant material, and most marine invertebrate forms.

Not collectable on federal land (vertebrates): Any bone or bone fragment, teeth, vertebrae, skull material, scales from fish, claws, tracks made by vertebrate animals.

When in doubt: Leave it and report. PRPA's criminal penalties (16 U.S.C. § 470aaa-5) scale with the value of the resource and restoration cost: up to 2 years imprisonment if $500 or less, up to 5 years if it's more — plus a fine under 18 U.S.C. § 3571 — and the penalty may be doubled for a second or subsequent violation.

Common questions

Fossil Hunting — frequently asked questions

Regulations explained

Guides for Fossil Hunting

The Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (PRPA), Explained

Every fossil-hunting site on this site traces back to the same 2009 federal law — the one that draws the line between a shell you can legally pocket and a bone fragment that's a federal crime to remove, based on nothing but which kind of animal it came from.

Getting started

Tips & Gear for Fossil Hunting