West Twin Fossil Beds

For all you GPS users, here are the coordinates to the fossil beds. 48.166794,-123.961294. 

For those of us who still look out of the car window to find out where we are going, here is how to find your way to the West Twin Fossil Beds.  The first map below kind of gives you an idea of where you will be driving.  The roads to the Fossil Beds are paved highways, but there are a lot of steep hills, and very sharp corners on the way there, so drive very carefully (slow is a good idea).

1. Get onto Highway 101 heading west to Port Angeles.

2. When you get to Port Angeles, turn left on North Lincoln Street (US-101).

3. Lincoln Street will about a couple miles up veer to the right, you are now on US Highway 101 heading West.

4. Continue on about 5.6 miles on Highway 101 West until you get to the US Highway 112 exit.

5. Turning right on US Highway 112 (you can only turn right), and you will travel approximately 22.5 miles.  As a note, you will pass through Joyce Washington which is about 11.9 miles from the Fossil Beds.

Now getting to the Fossil Beds is probably the easiest, assuming you are a first timer, by parking at the western end of Twin.  You will know you are are at the West end of Twin because the highway will be starting up hill, turning to the left, and and then to the right, and you will see pull-offs on the right side of the highway.  There are trails down the side of the bank to the ocean (ok, its saltwater and actually the Straight of Jan De Fuca, the real ocean is still about 40 miles further to the west).  Once you get down to the Straight of Jan De Fuca, you are at the start of the Fossil Bed area.  Start heading west (to your left if you are facing the Straights), and you will see a point down about 200 yards of so.  That is the flat excavated rectangular area on the second map below.   That is the base of the main Fossil Bed area.  Now if you will work your way up the old roads on the rectangular area, you will eventually see a high bank facing to the South.  That is a good place to start looking for Fossils.  On the second map below, just straight up (south), you will see two cleared areas, the first one small and the second one larger with the shadow of trees almost touching the north end of the clearing.  That is the base of the high bank where you can find lots of Fossils.

Since the Goggle satellite image was taken, there are now many new alder trees and brush which have started growing in the area you want to be looking in.  Plus you will have to make your way through the trees and brush to get to the high bank area.  Also look along any of the old ditches and you will find Fossils.  Well, hope this helps you to find your way to the Fossil Beds at West Twin. 

This is private property and the owners don't mind if you go there as long as you respect their property and remember you are there at your own risk.  Rock hounding and Fossil hunting can be a lot of fun, but can be very dangerous.  Especially if you are working around cliffs, banks, ditches, water, and the like.  In high banks areas such as the ones you will find at the Fossil Bed area can have slides which can injure of kill you.  You should not dig into or undermine bank areas, that is asking for trouble.  There is lots of Fossils you can find which have naturally fallen down the banks, we suggest that is where look and be careful that more of the bank area dose not fall down while you are looking for fossils.  We do not mean to scare you, just let you know that having fun is a good thing but caution should always be taken.