Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument
Location: Florissant, Colorado
Date: August 28, 2013
Florissant Fossil Beds is the location of where numerous very well preserved plants and insects have been discovered, including redwood stumps. There are exhibits in the visitor center displaying some of of the smaller, more fragile fossils, while the redwoods stumps are located on the grounds of the monument. The basin where the fossils are found was a lake when the climate was wetter and were preserved when a volcanic eruption led to an algal bloom in the lake.
There are several hiking trails in the monument, but the most visited are probably the 0.5-mile Ponderosa Loop Trail and the 1-mile Petrified Forest Loop Trail. Both of these trails begin at the visitor center, are quite easy hikes, and go past several of the petrified redwood stumps. Several miles of other trails connect to the two trails above. The Hornbek Homestead is a house that was built in 1878 in what is now the monument. Other structures surrounding this house were not originally part of the Hornbek Homestead but were rather relocated to the area from elsewhere in the area.
© Copyright 2017 Matthew Pintar. All rights reserved.
Date: August 28, 2013
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| Petrified redwood stumps |
Florissant Fossil Beds is the location of where numerous very well preserved plants and insects have been discovered, including redwood stumps. There are exhibits in the visitor center displaying some of of the smaller, more fragile fossils, while the redwoods stumps are located on the grounds of the monument. The basin where the fossils are found was a lake when the climate was wetter and were preserved when a volcanic eruption led to an algal bloom in the lake.
There are several hiking trails in the monument, but the most visited are probably the 0.5-mile Ponderosa Loop Trail and the 1-mile Petrified Forest Loop Trail. Both of these trails begin at the visitor center, are quite easy hikes, and go past several of the petrified redwood stumps. Several miles of other trails connect to the two trails above. The Hornbek Homestead is a house that was built in 1878 in what is now the monument. Other structures surrounding this house were not originally part of the Hornbek Homestead but were rather relocated to the area from elsewhere in the area.
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| Hornbek Homestead |
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| Fossils in the visitor center |
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| Along the Redwood Loop Trail with the visitor center at center and Pikes Peak left of center in background |
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