The Land Before Time Tour

Cochise County Fossil Tour: Ice Age Tracks and Prehistoric Discoveries Across Arizona

Experience the fascinating paleontological richness of Cochise County, a region renowned for its Ice Age sites and scientific significance. The journey offers a rare opportunity to explore landscapes where fossil discoveries continue to emerge from washes, road cuts, tunnels, and construction zones.

The tour travels north to Cascabel, where participants follow a sandy wash leading to a rock ledge marked with well-preserved ancient tracks. These remarkable fossilized footprints, attributed to prehistoric megafauna, offer a vivid connection to Earth’s distant past and create a memorable, hands-on learning experience for visitors of all ages.

Along the motorized route, guides highlight additional fossil locations and explain their geological importance within the broader context of southern Arizona’s natural history. The journey also includes a stop at Gammons Gulch, a recreated Old West film set town that blends cinematic heritage with frontier-era architecture.

A midday break at R and R Pizza in Benson provides time to rest before the tour concludes at the Southern Arizona Museum of Science and Technology. There, a curator and paleontologist offer an interactive presentation of fossil specimens, rounding out an experience that combines education, exploration, and immersive storytelling across Arizona’s prehistoric landscape.