Permitted Pursuits

Fossil Hunting in Montana

3 locations in Montana checked against the rules of the agency that manages each one: 2 allowed, 1 prohibited. Each page gives the permit requirements, limits, restrictions and penalties, with the primary sources it was checked against.

Rules last checked between May 2026 and August 2026

2 Allowed
1 Prohibited

Loading map…

All 3 Fossil Hunting Sites in Montana at a Glance

SiteVerdictChecked
Hell Creek (BLM, Montana)GarfieldAllowed
Judith River Formation (Judith Landing)FergusProhibited
Two Medicine Formation (Bynum/Choteau)TetonAllowed

Site Guides

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

Laws That Apply to These Sites

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.