If you’re looking for a quick getaway from Louisville, but have limited free time, Falls of the Ohio State Park provides a much-needed escape and the chance to see a one-of-a-kind attraction. Hugging the banks of the Ohio River, this 165-acre state park is the smallest in the Indiana Park System and is about 10 minutes from Louisville, Kentucky. Despite its central location just outside Clarksville, Falls of the Ohio State Park hides a rare treasure: The largest exposed fossil beds in the world from the Devonian Period.
Measuring 220 acres, these fossil beds jut out into the Ohio River, where eons of flowing water have gradually revealed over 600 distinct fossil types. The fossils offer a record of the animals and plants that lived 390 million years ago, before the dinosaurs walked the earth. During the “Age of the Fishes,” a vast tropical sea covered Indiana. Sponges grew in abundance, and jawless fish propelled themselves through the waters. As you walk across the fossil beds, you can clearly see trilobites, snails, and other creatures immortalized in stone.
You may have noticed that the fossil beds are larger than the park. That’s because the beds lie on both sides of the Ohio River, falling within the bounds of Falls of the Ohio National Wildlife Conservation Area, a 1404-acre preserve that encompasses the state park. These two preserves are so intertwined that they appear as one on the official Indiana State Parks map.
How to see the fossil beds at Falls of the Ohio State Park
Unlike Washington D.C.’s Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Falls of the Ohio allows visitors to walk all over the fossil beds. Here, you can spot snails, trilobites, sponges, brachiopods, and corals that look like cornucopias. You’ll encounter a coral colony that’s as large as a city bus and the largest horn coral in all of the Western Hemisphere. Visitors can explore the upper beds most of the year; however, the lower beds are typically accessible only during the summer and fall…