Day one of our adventure at Rockport State Recreation Area went a little like this: Pulled into the parking area, realized that there was no cell service, and I regrettably had forgotten to download any type of map of the park to my phone before arriving.
We saw the giant mounds of rocks, and thought for sure this was the grand mountain of fossils. I sent Buddy and Buggie off to explore while I convinced Bubba that waking from his nap for an adventure was a good idea. (Remember the advice you received from your second cousin twice removed? It may not be wise to wake a sleeping baby, but you will pay the price if you wake a sleeping toddler. Yikes!) 
Once Bubba was up, and reluctantly hiking along, the older kids were shouting back to me that they weren’t finding anything. Oh come on! Everyone says that they are everywhere, and that you can fill a bucket full in no time, they must not be looking hard enough, right? Wrong. As we teetered and wobbled our way up and over the rock hills, I did manage to find a couple of fossil-like rocks, but nothing as glorious as the reviews made it sound like.
On our hike we passed by three other families who inquired if we had found any fossils, and that they were looking for the quarry too. Though this made me feel better that I wasn’t the only fossil finding failure at the park, it didn’t help us find any fossils either.
As we hiked down to the lake to at least check to see if there were any cool rocks that had washed up on shore, Bubba took one of the larger rocks, about the size of a softball, and hurled it towards Buggie. He made a direct hit with her head, and dropped her to the ground in a split second. He didn’t do it on purpose (or at least that is what we are accepting as the truth.) But she was hurt nonetheless. Using cold rocks as a compress, we kept the swelling down, and bruising to a minimum. We tried to walk out along the lake back towards the parking lot, but the shore became a short cliff with erosion, and the lake was too choppy to try to walk it out, so instead, we retraced our steps back up and over the mounds of loose rocks. 
Once we got back to the car, it was time to call it a day. The kids were a little disappointed that they didn’t find any fossils, but Buddy had fun climbing the rock piles, and Buggie was just happy to be back in the car safe from flying rocks.
You can read the full encounter of our long weekend in Alpena: The Whole Truth.
This could have been the end of the story, and I would guess for a lot of people it probably is. It is a pretty park, and you won’t regret your visit, even if you don’t find your desired load of fossils. Because of its location, it is windy, and several degrees cooler than the surrounding areas.
The following morning, with far less enthusiastic kids in tow, I set out to try this fossil hunt again. Let’s stop for a moment. Before you go to the park, please view this document that has been prepared by the Alena Area Convention & VIsitors Bureau. Print it, or download it to your phone. Pay close attention to the map.
You will see here in this small snippet of the map that is included in the above guide, the purple circled area. That is the small area that we explored during our first day at the park. Notice that it isn’t even included in any of the official walking trails, maybe Bubba was onto something. 
For the shortest walk into the quarry, you can hike towards marker #28. 
At this point the path is very straight and easy to follow. Continue to follow the signs towards #27, or until you see the large opening through the trees.
This vast opening is indeed the quarry. You will not have to walk far before you are literally tripping over fossils with each step. Now THIS is what I was expecting! The fossils that you will find here are from the Devonian Period that took place about 359-419 million years ago. Be sure to check out the above guide for a comprehensive guide to the fossils that you might find here. 
One of the more prevalent is the fossilized rugose coral, Hexagonaria percarinata, or in more simpler terms, the fossil that produces our state stone, Petoskey stones. These wont look like the beautiful round, smooth stones that you might pick out of the lake, but that is because they have not been exposed to the repeated tumbling of the Great Lakes. It is a much more primitive looking fossil with the same familiar hexagon pattern. . State law allows each person to remove rocks and minerals from state parks and recreation lands with a limit of 25 pounds per year.
We brought a simple plastic bucket that can be found at a hardware store. Since I knew I was going to have to carry Bubba back to the car, I made it clear at the beginning of our picking that I was not going to be carrying the bucket. It is amazing how heavy the bucket got very quickly. This allowed Buddy and Buggie the opportunity to sort through their finds and toss some back for others to find later. It also allowed them to get creative and figure out how to split the load. They put some in the hoods of their sweatshirts, some in the pockets of their sweatshirts and shorts, and the rest remained in the bucket, which they traded on and off about every three steps all the way back to the car. Even though they grunted, and struggled, they didn’t complain, because they knew the simple answer was to leave the fossils behind. A couple of canvas bags, or backpacks would have been a better choice for the kids to carry their fossils back, as the bucket was too tall for them to get a good lift at their height. 
Now that we know what we are doing, this would be a fun and easy place to visit again in the future! You can spend as much or as little time as you would like rock sleuthing. On our second attempt, we hiked in, picked rocks, and hiked out in just over an hour.
Be sure to follow these simple tips to have an enjoyable fossil hunt at Rockport State Recreation Area on your first try! 
If you are considering a vacation or a long weekend trip to Alpena, Michigan, I hope that you will take the time to dive into our other posts that go more in depth into specific topics of our stay:
A Weekend in Alpena with Kids: The Whole Shocking Truth
Kid Approved Places to Eat in Alpena
From Shipwrecks to Underwater Technology with Kids and NOAA
By the Hours – Alpena with Kids: 1, 2, 3…
Dinosaur Gardens: Not another dead roadside attraction
