Ice Age Fossils State Park in North Las Vegas opened January 20, 2024, the newest State Park in Nevada. Future additions to the Park include a fossil repository building with a research lab and facilities at the Big Dig trailhead about a mile to the east of the current visitor center. Most of the fossils that were previously removed from the site are currently stored in California, but will be returned to the site when the repository is completed.
The new 315-acre State Park is located adjacent to the 22,650-acre Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument that is administer by the the National Park Service. Currently, there are limited facilities and improvements at the National Monument.
During the last Ice Age, also known as the Last Glacial Period, which occurred from about 115,000 to 11,700 years ago, this part of Nevada was a wetlands and home to such animals as Columbian mammoths, American lions, dire wolves, saber-toothed cats, ancient bisons, camels, ground sloths, horses, and llamas.
Paleontology studies started at the sites in 1933, when quarry workers discovered the bones of a Columbian mammoth. After the discovery, there were a number of small excavations in the area, but the most extensive excavation happened in 1962-1963 when a large trench was excavated in the north-south direction leading to a dry wash. This excavation became known as the "Big Dig."
Also, previously found in the park were rare bear poppies. While I was visiting with one of the rangers, he said that due to the increased human traffic and several year of very dry weather, all of the bear poppies may have died. Since this has been a wet spring, everyone is watching for signs that some of the bear poppies may have survived.
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
The exterior of the visitor center building has some unique features. When viewed from the building side of the wall, there is a saber-toothed tiger image etched on the support column posts. And, there are also fossil images embedded in the concrete retaining wall in front of the building.
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
Within the visitor center there are some unique displays. Animals move around the wetlands as you watch them.
Various panels explain the changing climatic conditions and what happened to the wetlands. Other panels give a history of human activity in the area and detail paleontology excavations at the site. A number of different types of bones excavated at the site are on display, along with explanations of the animals they came from.
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
At this time, all of the hiking trails start from the visitor center. The first trail makes a loop that has a number of 3-D Ice Age animal sculptures and a description of each animal.
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| Photography by Kolohe |
Since the Big Dig parking lot has not been completed, it is about a 1.5 loop to visit the Big Dig area. Fortunately, within the Park there are not a lot of elevation changes, so this is a nice hike for families with small children.
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
Along the trail there are fossils that visitors can touch and inspect. It was getting late when we reached this point, so we had to hurry back to the visitor center before the park closed.
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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| Photography by Kolohe |
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