Hagerman Fossil Beds

I have never been there, and I've lived in this area for quite a while, so I decided to take the kids out and see the Hagerman Horse.

We started at the Visitor's Center and I didn't think the kids were going to leave :). They had a short little movie on the history of the area and how the fossils were discovered. There is a Discovery Center in the Visitor's Center where the kids got to "dig" for fossils. They also got to use magnifying glasses to look at fossils and rocks and petrified wood. There were coloring pages and all kinds of learning posters, so it was a lot of fun. I wish I could have gotten more out of the Discovery Center, but Rachel is a very energetic, determined, curious child and just doesn't understand why she can't get in the displays to see things up close and personal. Then we went out to the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. You can't actually dig for fossils or really see where they have dug for them, but they have Outlooks along the road with trails and informational signs along the way. At at least one part, you can see the Oregon Trail. While we were walking one of the trails, Lindsey saw something move on the path ahead of us and she froze. It was a little lizard. It took a little bit to convince her the lizard wasn't going to eat her and to keep walking. The lizard of course scampered off the trail as we got near.
I could not get all the kids to look at me at the same time. Oh well.