Where to Find Petrified Wood in Texas

Standout petrified wood spots in Texas

Hand-picked from the full list below, with the reason each one earns a trip.

• Colorado River at Smithville

  Bastrop County County

  The Colorado River at Smithville is a navigable Texas river, so its bed is state-owned public land, and the City of Smithville maintains free river access at Vernon L. Richards Riverbend Park beneath the Highway 71 bridges. Bastrop County is classic petrified palm wood country, the Texas state stone, with petrified wood and agate occurring in the river gravels and the Catahoula Formation.

• Ladonia Fossil Park

  Fannin County County

  The North Sulphur River channel at Ladonia cuts into Late Cretaceous marine beds that yield shark teeth, mosasaur teeth and bone, ammonites, and Exogyra oysters. The Upper Trinity Regional Water District operates the site as a free public fossil park, and what visitors find is theirs to keep. Mosasaur material is among the more common vertebrate finds.

• Davy Crockett National Forest (Ratcliff Lake)

  Houston County County

  The Davy Crockett National Forest sits in the petrified-wood belt of East Texas, where silicified and agatized wood weathers out of Catahoula and Manning Formation gravels alongside jasper and agate. The US Forest Service issues free use permits for personal collection of petrified wood and common lapidary minerals on the forest. Vertebrate fossils and artifacts remain off limits.

• Brazos River at Brazos Park East

  McLennan County County

  The Brazos is a navigable Texas river, so its bed is state-owned and open to public use where reached from a public access point. Brazos Park East in Waco provides a free city boat ramp onto that bed, where exposed gravel bars carry petrified wood, agatized wood, agate, and chert washed down from upstream formations. Low water exposes the best gravel.

• Sam Houston National Forest (Double Lake)

  San Jacinto County County

  Sam Houston National Forest carries petrified palm wood, the official Texas state stone since 1969, along with agate, jasper, and chalcedony weathered from young Gulf Coastal Plain gravels. The US Forest Service permits personal collection of common lapidary minerals and petrified wood here under a free use permit. Vertebrate fossils and artifacts are excluded.

• Lyndon B. Johnson National Grassland (Black Creek Lake)

  Wise County County

  The Lyndon B. Johnson National Grassland exposes Cretaceous limestone full of fossil oysters along its ridges, plus agate, chert, and petrified wood in its sandy soils. The US Forest Service allows personal collection of common minerals, petrified wood, and invertebrate fossils here under a free use permit. Vertebrate fossils and artifacts are prohibited.

Best counties for petrified wood in Texas

Ranked by the number of mapped petrified wood spots. County links open the full rockhounding page for that county.

• Bastrop County1 spot
• Burleson County1 spot
• Comal County1 spot
• Fannin County1 spot
• Fayette County1 spot
• Gonzales County1 spot
• Houston County1 spot
• Hudspeth County1 spot
• Lavaca County1 spot
• Madison County1 spot
• McLennan County1 spot
• Reeves County1 spot
• San Jacinto County1 spot
• Trinity County1 spot
• Wise County1 spot

Every petrified wood spot we track in Texas

Sorted by county. Coordinates open in Google Maps.

Where else to find petrified wood

• Oregon12 spots
• Washington12 spots
• Utah11 spots
• Nebraska10 spots
• Pennsylvania9 spots
• California8 spots
• Kansas8 spots
• Missouri8 spots

More minerals to hunt in Texas

• Agate24
• Jasper19
• Chalcedony14
• Agatized Wood13
• Quartz6
• Barite5