A Prehistoric Journey Across Nevada
I started my journey flying into Reno, meeting up with my buddy Chandler, and heading to the Nevada Museum of Art. There, I filmed the exhibit “Deep Time: Sea Dragons of Nevada,” which shows marine reptile fossils primarily from Nevada’s Augusta Mountains.
The way the ichthyosaur skulls and skeletons are preserved allows them to fit beautifully within an art exhibit. Nearby, a laser-light installation brilliantly (and accurately) captures the massive 60-foot-long Shonisaurus while maintaining an elegant, artistic approach. Everything in the exhibit—including Annie Alexander’s field equipment and historical documents, fossil specimens, and a video showing modern paleontologists working at local sites—works together to make a world-class exhibit for Nevada’s epic sea dragons.
Our stop for the night was Middlegate Station, a historic trading post that is now a bar, restaurant, motel, and gas station. Inside, the rustic wood trim, taxidermy, and ceiling adorned with dollar bills (pinned from travelers over the decades) gives visitors a real taste of Nevada’s Western spirit. Our stay was quiet and peaceful, and I vividly remember watching the sun set in the desert valley.
The next day, we traveled to Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park, a mining ghost town in the Augusta Mountains that also contains ichthyosaur fossils. This mix of natural and Western history in such a remote destination is a must-see.
Many of the original buildings of this rusted and eroding Old West landmark are still standing. The park’s Fossil House—and campgrounds—are about 5 minutes down the road from the ghost town. While roughly 40 specimens have been discovered throughout the park, the Fossil House features nine Shonisaurus skeletons densely packed together. The current hypothesis is that these massive marine reptiles were giving birth near the coast of the inland sea before they died from a toxic algal bloom.
At the end of the second day, we drove to the tiny town of Rachel and checked in to the Little A’Le’Inn, a UFO-themed restaurant that’s about as close as the public can get to Area 51. For ufologists and alien enthusiasts, this is quite a pilgrimage to make: A large part of Nevada’s pop-cultural footprint is Area 51, UFOs, military installations, and strange lights in the desert night sky. The Little A’Le’Inn’s restaurant contains a plethora of alien memorabilia, statues, posters, photographs, and maps.
Our third day entailed our own fossil discoveries at Oak Springs Trilobite Site, located 20 minutes from Caliente. This public area encourages visitors to chip away at shale outcrops with rock hammers to find their own trilobite fossils! After parking at the trailhead lot, we hiked along the trail until we found the fossil-bearing rock and eventually uncovered trilobites in between layers of shale. The fossils of these little prehistoric arthropods are the same color as the rock, so you need to have a keen eye for their shape and texture to spot them. This is an accessible activity for the entire family that gives everyone the thrill of finding a fossil.
On our fourth day, we visited Ice Age Fossil State Park, located on the northern outskirts of Las Vegas. Its state-of-the-art visitor center—which opened in January 2024—exhibits an impressive display of fossils, diagrams, and paleoart.
At one time, the Las Vegas Valley was home to a lush environment perfect for megafauna, including American camels, ground sloths, Columbian mammoths, and saber-toothed cats. The park’s paleontologist—Dawn Reynoso—took Chandler and I on a tour around the visitor center and into the park itself. On our walk, we saw many fossil-bearing formations, and Dawn pointed out life-sized metal cutouts of each Pleistocene species, which they had designed!
My fossil trip around the state of Nevada showcased many prehistoric treasures that I recommend everyone enjoy and explore. This journey through time—combined with the small-town character of each remote location—definitely made for a memorable experience.
Harrison Duran is a South Dakota-based paleontologist whose discoveries include fossils from Triceratops, T. rex, Edmontosaurus, and Pachycephalosaurus. Follow @Duranosaur on Instagram to digitally join his adventures.
