National Fossil Day

The San Diego Natural History Museum—known around town as The Nat—is hosting National Fossil Day on Wednesday, October 14, from 10 AM to 2 PM. It's a day of public outreach that takes over several levels of the museum in Balboa Park, with staff and volunteers running activities and displays throughout the building.

The main draw is down on the lower level in Amazement in the Basement, where the museum's paleontology team works. On this day, they open up that space so you can watch them at work and, depending on what they're doing, maybe even take part in fossil preparation yourself. It's a rare chance to see the actual process of getting fossils out of the rock rather than just seeing the finished displays in the galleries.

Beyond the basement, the rest of the day is spread across the museum's floors, with the activities and displays running from 10 AM to 2 PM. If you've spent time at The Nat before, you know the paleontology collection is a big part of what they do, and this is one of the few days a year when the people who actually work on those fossils are out in the open and talking about it. It's a good one to bring kids along for, given the hands-on side of things.

National Fossil Day runs Wednesday, October 14, from 10 AM to 2 PM at The San Diego Natural History Museum in Balboa Park.