Made a quick stop while driving by on our way to a hot springs in the area. The visitor center has moved since we last visited it to its new building located on the north end of Hagerman. They do have off season hours currently in effect. We had a good visit. read more

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Stopped by on a road trip; noticed it on the map so made the stop, but not somewhere I would necessarily go out of the way to see unless you are really into fossils. Visitor center is quite small and we were not really sure what all was encompassed in the national monument vs the state park. Seems many of the points of interest are spread out, so will take some time to see it all. read more

There is a combined visitors center for the national park site and state park. You'll find a representative for both inside. It's free to visit the center and walk around,plus there are nice restrooms inside. The main attraction here are the fossils. You'll find tons of beautiful original and replica exhibits with many info panels to go with them. Nearby you'll find easy access to waterfalls and hilltop overlooks. read more

Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument - Museums Near Me - Hagerman, Idaho

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This is a very nice visitors center about 10 minutes off of I-84 in Hagerman. The rangers had good info. Didn't have time to explore the actual national monument or state park but sounds like there are a lot of cool things to do especially if you're interested in fossils. read more

Really not worth the drive from the highway. Seriously don't go out of your way to see it. Small room with a few fossils, many are casts and not actually real. read more

New location: No fossil beds. Just a small room with a few skulls some real, some not. Not worth the 10 minute drive from the highway.

Unless you are really into fossils, the place to go is the visitor center - which has a very knowledgeable (70-year-old former geology professor as) ranger eager to answer any questions about the exhibits, the local area, and wide variety of related topics - but hurry, because this might be his last season. Unlike most other fossil sites, this one is NOT about dinosaurs but much more recent extinct species of animals that lived in North America, like prehistoric horses, mastodons, and bone-crunching dogs.... read more

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This is a national park site that I would probably pass on visiting. Glad the site is preserved but not much is actually open to the public. The visitor center is small and there is not much content. Friendly ranger (as there is at virtually ever NPS site). No junior ranger program (although a new one in works). Not enough content to make a stop worth it in my opinion. read more

Go to the visitor's center rather than out to the beds. You'll see a lot more and learn a lot more. read more

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The Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument was one of the great finds of my trip. It is a small jewel, and easily overlooked. I could see how some might be disappointed, there aren't any dinosaur fossils to be found here, but lots of great history, and other things to explore. You must definitely first stop at the Visitors Center located in town. This is were you will find all the information. The staff were very friendly, and provided us with the driving map for the different stops to view the Hagerman Fossil area. Also, you will find here a very informative small exhibit regarding the Minidoka National Historic Site, and the map on how to locate the nearby site. Also, this is where you get to view the impressive Hagerman Horse fossils. I didn't even know about the horse until visiting here. They mentioned that this site was the largest concentration of Hagerman Horse fossils found in North America. Lastly, we had been driving through Oregon and constantly saw the information and signs about the Oregon trail. The visitor center also had information about the portion of the Oregon trail that went through this area, and were you could still see the ruts of where the wagon train went. I love that period of history, and yes, I got super excited about getting to see some ruts. The really enjoyed the drive to the different Hagerman Fossil overlooks. I found the scenery to be very beautiful, and the geological history fascinating. There is no fee to enter the visitor center or to view the sites along the map. read more

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The museum is a one room display area that showcases the Hagerman horse, but also contains lots of other fossils. If you've never visited a fossil museum before, this will be a good introduction. Gentleman on duty was great. The drive to the Snake River overlook was much better than the overlook itself. My wife, a retired History instructor having age related hip issues, was disappointed that the Oregon/Emigrant Overlook seemed to require a bit of a hike so see them. The visit would definitely benefit from a video preparation. Perhaps another 'victim' of COVID? read more

Really small little "museum" at the visitor center but not bad for a town of 800ish. Very beautiful sites just outside the town to include the original Oregon Trail. read more

the fossil horse is famous. the Ranger is fantastic- a wealth of knowledge and super friendly takes about 30 min to go through read more

Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument - Museums Near Me - Hagerman, Idaho

Be sure to note that the museum / visitor center is in the town of Hagerman, not out on the site. The signage is not good. The museum is small with a few reconstructed skeletons and some cases is material. There is a short film available. This is definitely a "worth a stop" rather than "worth a detour" or "trip" site. The room of material on Minisoka is good. read more

Note: at the time of the writing of this review, the actual monument is closed due to recent fires, but the visitors center, located in the sleepy little town of Hagerman, is open. When we visited at the end of July, the monument was open. This NPS site's claim to fame is that they have the largest concentration of Hagerman Horse fossils in North America. First stop, Hagerman Fossil Beds Visitors Center in town. Here you will meet a very nice park ranger or two who will be happy to share all kinds of information about the monument. I think the ranger gave us about 17 brochures about the fossil beds as well as the historic trails and Minidoka NHS (at present Minidoka visitors information is housed here also. You can get your Minidoka passport stamp here.) They have several activities for children in the VC as well as a Hagerman Junior Ranger program and another special Junior Paleontologist program that is more long-term and involves visiting multiple NPS sites. Fun for the kids! Unfortunately we also arrived about 15 minutes before closing time (5 pm, not 6 pm as their website said) so we didn't get to learn a whole lot. The ranger told us to mail back the Junior Ranger brochures and they would mail us back the girls' badges. Now onto the monument (assuming it's open.) Make sure you get the driving tour brochure in the VC and have your passenger read along as you drive toward the monument. It talks about the geology and the history of the area. When you first enter the monument there's a nice boardwalk to an overlook point and some informational signs. As you drive to the end of the road there are other things to notice. At the end there are some walking trails and you can actually still see the wagon wheel ruts from the Oregon Trail in some spots (they don't want you to walk on the wagon trails!) The one bummer about the driving tour is that you really don't get to see any fossils or fossil beds. Which seems like it kind of defeats the purpose of coming here. But come on, chances are you're a tourist and you won't be back here for a while so why not stop in. (I have to say, though, that I was talking to a fellow tourist/national park junkie at the VC and she mentioned a spot in town or maybe just north of town where you can actually see the fossil beds from some kind of overlook. We totally missed this and I'm not sure what she was referring to...so you may want to take the time to investigate! I am not sure why we did not. I guess we were burning daylight and wanted to keep moving because we had a lot of ground to cover yet that evening.) If you get out and walk at the end of that tour, choose your path carefully, as the trails are not that well marked. We had a hard time figuring out which trail was the short trail and which was the long trail (several miles difference.) I think we spent about a total of an hour and a half between the VC and the driving tour. It would have been a better visit if we'd spent a little more time exploring, doing a little hiking, and gotten to the VC earlier in the day. I would have also tried driving around to the western side of the monument where there's a dirt road that has parking and trail access into the monument. read more

The fossil bed landscape is very interesting, but the visitor's center is actually where most of the information is. They have tons of fossils on display, most notably the Hagerman Horse, a diminutive prehistoric horse that was abundant in the area. Worth a visit if you're making your way to Boise, as it's only a short detour off of the freeway. read more

There are only a few parking on the side, do be aware that you don't park in the church parking lot. Visitor center is not the same location as the fossil bed, so I am only speaking to the visitor center. It is currently combined with Manidoka's if you also care to see info regarding that bit of history. The video they showed was informative on how the fossil bed was discovered. There are molds of wholly mammoth skulls. Park rangers are helpful with your questions. What were in the display cases are small, but not bad. No dinosaurs, but still a lot of history. read more

When looking this address make sure u type north not n or just call took us 34 minutes to figure out the address and where the fossil beds were really at read more