Ice Age Fossils State Park is a 315-acre state park in North Las Vegas,

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, on the northernmost fringe of the metropolitan area. It is located adjacent to the

Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, a United States National Monument near Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada, was established in 2014 to protect Ice Age paleontological discoveries. The monument is administered by the National Park Servic ...

near Willie McCool Regional Park. This park is currently under construction and there are no facilities available to the public yet. Grand opening information will be posted to the park website and social media once a date has been determined.

History

Ice Age Fossils State Park was announced in January 2017 as part of Governor

Brian Sandoval Brian Edward Sandoval (; born August 5, 1963) is an American politician, academic administrator, and former federal judge who served as the 29th Governor of Nevada from 2011 to 2019. A graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno, Sandoval began ...

's $15 million "Explore Your Nevada" initiative. The grand opening of the

visitor center A visitor center or centre (see American and British English spelling differences), visitor information center, tourist information center, is a physical location that provides tourist information to visitors. Types of visitor center A visi ...

and overall completion of the park will be sometime in 2023. The park originally was to be named Tule Springs State Park, but was named Ice Age Fossils State Park to avoid confusion with the

. The park is located on land that was wetlands during the last

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...

of Prehistoric Nevada between roughly 100,000 to 11,700 years ago. It is the site of excavations of fossils from animals that called this area home, such as

Columbian mammoth The Columbian mammoth (''Mammuthus columbi'') is an extinct species of mammoth that inhabited the Americas as far north as the Northern United States and as far south as Costa Rica during the Pleistocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line ...

American lion ''Panthera atrox'', better known as the American lion, also called the North American lion, or American cave lion, is an extinct pantherine cat that lived in North America during the Pleistocene epoch and the early Holocene epoch, about 340,0 ...

s, dire wolves,

saber-toothed cat Machairodontinae is an extinct subfamily of carnivoran mammals of the family Felidae (true cats). They were found in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Europe from the Miocene to the Pleistocene, living from about 16 million ...

ancient bison ''Bison antiquus'', the antique bison or ancient bison, is an extinct species of bison that lived in Late Pleistocene North America until around 10,000 years ago. It was one of the most common large herbivores on the North American continent dur ...

, camels, ground sloths,

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

s, and

llama The llama (; ) (''Lama glama'') is a domesticated South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since the Pre-Columbian era. Llamas are social animals and live with others as a herd. Their wool is soft ...

s. These animals and more have been found during the 1962–1963 "Big Dig" excavation and over the 120 year history of scientific exploration in the area.

Activities and amenities

Ice Age Fossils State Park features a network of trails leading to fossil beds and archaeological sites. A visitor center with a small

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make thes ...

will open in 2023.

Camping Camping is an outdoor activity involving overnight stays away from home, either without shelter or using basic shelter such as a tent, or a recreational vehicle. Typically, participants leave developed areas to spend time outdoors in more na ...

and

off-roading Off-roading is the activity of driving or riding in a vehicle on unpaved surfaces such as sand, gravel, riverbeds, mud, snow, rocks, and other natural terrain. Types of off-roading range in intensity, from leisure drives with unmodified vehicl ...

within the park is prohibited.

Vegetation

Rare bear poppies among other endemic plant species can be found within the park.

References

Parks in Clark County, Nevada State parks of Nevada Paleontology in Nevada {{Nevada-stub