The most dramatic run of Niobrara chalk in Kansas: white spires and fins standing more than a hundred feet above the Smoky Hill River, the floor of the sea that once covered the western half of the state. Swimming and flying reptiles about 85 million years old have come out of this chalk, and giant clams and oysters are common in it. Nineteenth-century travellers called it Castle City. It was part of the McGuire Ranch for five generations; The Nature Conservancy owns it now and the state runs it as a park. The two marked trails, a quarter mile and a mile and a half, lead to the overlooks, and the ground beyond them is reached only on a ranger tour. Day use only with a state park vehicle permit, and nothing leaves: no fossils, rocks or flowers.
Swimming and flying reptiles, giant clams and oysters · Late Cretaceous, ~85 mya
This ground is protected. Photograph it, record it, leave it where it lies. On US federal land the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act 2009 makes collecting vertebrate fossils an offence, and penalties are real.
Other places on the map within a couple of hours.
