The Ernst Quarry (a.k.a. Shark Tooth Hill)

Last weekend, my elder son, Andrew and I met up with some extended family and spent the morning digging through the dirt for fossil shark teeth and whale bone. It was an awesome time! Many of you may have already visited as this is a well-known site. This was our first visit.

As we live in Southern California, we drove up Friday night and overnighted in Bakersfield and then woke up early and got to the gate at 7:15 AM. Rob Ernst was waiting for the visitors and had us fill out a consent form and then, when everyone had arrived, drove us up to the quarry. He explained everything, showed us around and got us started.

Basically, think of this as scraping dirt with your hands and finding fossils. It's about that easy. Minimal hard labor required. To prove that point, while I was making a major excavation, Andrew sat down in an open area and started sifting through the dirt with his hands ... and came up with eight or ten shark teeth in an hour. I got distracted by all the fossil whale bone lying around. It's all over the place. Laying on the surface, just below the surface ... everywhere. One of my cousins found a fish vertebra which measured about three inches in diameter and four inches long. It was a beautiful specimen.

There were only about 10 parties there - about half with children. This is a very family-friendly dig site and you WILL come away with fossils. If you decide to go, here are some pointers:

1. You can make reservations on The Ernst Quarry website.

2. If you go with children, go to the "near" quarry as it has an outhouse and picnic tables. The "far" quarry does not have any amenities.

3. Take lots of water, snacks and something to eat. While we had a light breeze the day we went and it wasn't too hot, the owner mentioned that it can get well into the 90-100's during summer. There is no shade in the area so you may want to plan your trip around the weather. If it's windy and you are an allergy sufferer (like me) you'll pay for it later. I did. LOL.

4. The drive to the gate can be a trick as it's an unmarked gate. Follow the directions (which will be emailed to you upon your registration) precisely. They're very clear but follow them.

5. Cash or checks only. You can dig for half the day or the full day, the price changes accordingly.

6. Equipment: Garden tools work well. Their website also has suggestions on what to bring. We dragged along a couple of buckets to carry our stuff. Those folding military shovels work well too. A paint brush comes in handy should you run across a large vertebra so you can whisk away the loose soil and not go blindly picking at your prize. Bring a plastic bag to carry the sharks teeth so they don't get lost.

7. The road in is a maintained dirt road which is fully negotiable by stock cars. If you have a low slung sports car you will have to be careful as there are potholes. For reference, there was a Hyundai Sonata and Honda Odyssey that made it up without issue. The owner was very considerate and led the caravan up slowly, making sure he was avoiding the larger potholes.

8. You might note that in some of my photos we're wearing paper filter masks. This area is known to have Valley Fever spores in the soil and you really don't want that. A simple papermask should be able to prevent catching it. The risk is mostly when it's hot and dry and a lot of dust gets kicked up. If you think this precaution is over-blown, read your indemnification agreement carefully. You will acknowledge that you know about this and that you will hold-harmless, The Ernst Quarries.

Overall, this is a great site and we're planning another trip in the future.

Here's the shark's teeth Andrew found. Dad didn't find any (HA!):



Where Andrew did his "digging":



Whale bone. Most of what we found was small - one or two inches in length. We'll bag those up and give it to the teachers at the boy's school.











Andrew is now taller than his Mom and I've only got a couple of inches on him. He eats more than me as well ... LOL!



At the front entrance:



If you look at the hills in the background, you'll see a horizontal line that looks almost like a foot trail running across the hills, about mid-way up. This is apparently a fossil bearing strata and what we were digging in at the quarry. The area you see in the pic is on private property.

We had a great time and will definitely be heading back! The owner's a great guy and if you have a family with small children, you'll really enjoy this trip.

***EDIT***
This part has nothing to do with the dig but afterwards, we drove north about 20 minutes to the small farming community of Mc Farland and had lunch at Casa de las Fajitas. The food was outstanding. I ended up buying a quart of their salsa to go. Some photos of the place. See the Tripadvisor report: www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g32693-d4932127-Reviews-Casa_de_las_Fajitas-Mc_Farland_California.html







Thanks for checking out the thread.
Paul