70th Stop - Mineral Wells, TX

Blog Post #81 - Written August 26, 2026

Stay: November 15-17, 2025


We pulled into Pine Valley RV Park in Mineral Wells, TX.  We didn't end up venturing into the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but enjoyed the fun excavation areas of the outer regions. 

Mineral Wells happens to be home of one of the few free fossil digs in the US.  The Mineral Wells Fossil Park is home to an ancient lake, full of crinoids, echinoids, bivalves, and all sorts of other ancient ocean life.  I somehow missed a picture of most of the crinoids we collected, but here is the chart of a lot of things that we found.



The coolest find of the day was this finger? of some larger dinosaur!  It was sweet!  We spent a good couple of hours digging here over a couple of days.  



It was pretty hot, so we found a nice spot under a bridge to cool off in the river.  I, of course, found some fun colored rocks, so we all started making cool rock art.  





We also found a crawdad hole/nest!


One of the joys of Texas is the wildlife.  Especially the exotic type! Haha! Gotta love Texas!



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