Penn Dixie Fossil Park & Nature Reserve

What an absolute blast! Hidden gem right here in WNY. Kid friendly, very knowledgeable staff, it was so awesome to get out of the house and have fun with a 5yo doing something educational! Our little one loved this, I will definitely be recommending to all my friends. You will see us again soon! Thank you for this amazing experience 🌟🩷

We had high hopes that were totally met for our first fossil dig at this grand slam hit outside Buffalo. We were met with a friendly introduction to the site and rules by knowledgeable and assertive staff. Down in the park to work the site, we were fortunate to get some tips for finding the diverse assortment of fossils laying there waiting for discovery. Everyone came away with something, and the buckets, tools, and chart provided by the site made 90m pass like the blink of an eye. We were glad to arrive early before the sun really got hot. Bring a hat and sunscreen depending on when you come! The gift wall came in handy (have the kid grab a “grab bag”), with fun retro shirts and all kinds of other goodies. It’s definitely worth the trip, money, and time to scour the surface for rocks revealing old life hundreds of millions year old, and heading home with way more than rocks in your pocket. It would be interesting to learn more about the site itself someday! I guess that’s for next time…

We had such a great day here! We drove up from Georgia and parked our camper in their large parking lot and had lunch before we entered the preserve. I bought tickets ahead of time online just to make sure there was space. It is a very large area so there was plenty of space to spread our. Our guide was so nice and gave great advice. The whole staff was super friendly and helpful and they had a great little gift shop area, awesome designs y’all and all cool that you have Oxford pennants. We found a ton of fossils and had a great time. I can’t wait to come back!

This was for a private event at the park where we explored the area looking for fossils. Now this is my ignorant not a dig pun intended at the event - in my ignorance I was expecting a dig up some pterodactyl or Tyrannosaurus Rex bones but instead we got tiny shells and other fossilized things. Turns out there are no such fossils from the Jurassic era here at least not that we know of. My son liked it and he enjoyed digging around. If the weather was controllable by the folks at Penn Dixie then I would lower this to two stars but they have obviously no control around that it was cold and windy and wet my fault for not dressing right. My son liked it and therefore I'll give this the five stars it deserves. I would do this again but would dress better for it it was pretty cool to see 380 year old fossils

Awesome place to take the kids... or adults interested in fossils. We booked a private expedition. Stan was our guide. Stan was on hand to educate us about the site, the topography and everything we needed to know about fossil hunting. Tools and everything needed for success were included in the expedition. You can BYO or rent them if you are going to DIY. I’m not sure we would have been able to get so much out of the experience without Stan’s expertise! Definitely a must do! There are portable toilets on site. Wear sunscreen and bring water.