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I have a section of river bank that is nothing but a wall of rock. It isn't shale per se, but it flakes off in sheets somewhat similar to shale. It is more like sandstone in composition. There are tons and tons of fossils that pour out of it all the time. Just plant leaves and best seen when wet while hunting. Sometimes I go down with some tools after a good flood and hunt around, but I've never really done any serious excavation.
Here's the most recent one I've found. 7.5"x3" I've not taken the time to clean it, but this is the only type of fossil I've ever found in that location after a flood. The cliff face has only about a 4 feet tall section of this sort of flaking sandstone and is at the very bottom. The rest is the kind that comes off in gargantuan boulders. The entire cliff and "hill" is about 50 feet tall or so.
The only other interesting things around here are blue and red stones that you can make paints with, some iron nodules about 4"x3" max, and the very rare petrified log or two(calamites probably). The logs are always found on the cliff side of roadway cut outs. I have one the might be one, but I kind of doubt it. It is pretty damaged if it were, like an inside piece or something. I had some really nice 4" round sections, with good patterning, but they've been lost over the years.
Everything else is just imported, like finding sea shells and tubes in a load of driveway gravel from out of state.
As for tips, road and trail cut outs where there are cliff faces of stone. Driving along the highway I sometimes would stop at a cliff face and pick up a few specimens. Best to take a friend to drive you and use binoculars. You'll get good at spotting stuff from a moving vehicle after a while. I did this in the 1980s and the cops then didn't care, but I can't speak for them now. we just pulled over way off the highway to park to be out of their "zone of interest."
