Saturday, June 15, 2019, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Florissant, CO

About 20 miles from our campsite in Green Mountain Falls was one of the younger units of the National Park System, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Florissant, CO. It was created in 1969 to protect the fossils and petrified trees that had been ravaged by tourists for many years. The fossils, in this case, were plants, insects, and small animals.

It has been a long time since I managed to leave my SD card at home in my laptop and NOT in my camera. Oops! Luckily, this was not the most photogenic National Monument.

Around 30-35 million years ago the climate in this area was different enough to support giant Redwood trees. They happily grew until nearby volcanoes covered the bottom 15 feet of the trees with mud and ash. The trees died and what was encased in the mud and ash fossilized. Erosion has worn down the ancient rock layers exposing the petrified wood. 

You could actually see the individual tree rings as separate layers. Estimates put some of the largest trees at 750 years old and 275 feet tall when they died.

The fragile state of the petrified stumps was apparent with the banding applied to hold them together. Some of the remains were also protected from the weather with large awnings to slow down the inevitable disintegration now that they had been unearthed. The petrified wood here was not as colorful as that found in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona because of the different minerals available during the fossilization process.

Part of the Monument included the pioneer home of Adeline Hornbek. In 1875 she took advantage of the Homestead Act to start a new life in Colorado. Adeline and her four children had this home built and farmed their parcel of land.

It was interesting how they improved the interior walls. First, they tacked up newspaper over the logs. Then the paper was covered with old linen. Finally, the cloth was plastered to give it a finished look while adding some insulation against the winter cold.

I am very happy to have my induction cooktop rather than an old wood-fired stove. Of course, this was probably the state of the art in kitchen conveniences at the time.

The rain was falling from those dark clouds not so far away. When it started sprinkling on us we cut our visit short and headed into Woodland Park to celebrate our 46th wedding anniversary with a nice Mexican dinner.