While my sister and her family were visiting us we went to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. Ruth and Dana like to go to national parks and other fun outdoor places, so they hit a few while they were in Colorado and we got to go with them to this one. The Florissant Fossil Beds is a very rich fossil deposit up in a mountain valley north of Pike's Peak. Volcanic eruptions covered a lake bed there 35 million years ago (ish) and created fossils of plants and animals in the river bed. The eruptions also petrified many HUGE redwood trees that were growing there at the time and you can still see the petrified stumps. Really cool. Here we are at the visitor center looking at some of the fossils.
Anna and Matthew worked on the fossil puzzle (a picture of a wasp/yellow jacket thing fossil).
One of the huge petrified redwood stumps
We took a short nature walk through the valley. I think it was a mile.
A petrified stump of something
I'd like to come back in the spring when the wildflowers are out.
I kept taking off Matthew's baseball cap for pictures but he thought it was too bright. Sorry.
The big stump
I pushed the stroller along this unpaved trail. It said it was wheelchair accessible, but after walking it with the stroller I would argue that it is not. We did make it back though.
The trees were starting to change color. I love that yellow color. So beautiful.
More fossil adventures to come...
1 comment:
The trees are lovely! Just thinking about pushing the stroller on that path makes me weary. It makes you want hover strollers.
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