Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Sunday I drove to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument not far away from Colorado Springs. It's less than 2 hours from where I live. It is a very famous location but for some reason doesn't seem to get that many visits nowadays. That wasn't always the case and the site was very much picked over before it became a monument in 1969. It's known for petrified tree trunks and impression fossils of plants. During the Eocene there had been an erupting volcano from which lahars or volcano induced mudslides. One such mudslide flowed into a forest. It buried everything about 15 feet deep. Standing trees eventually died and all but the bu ried portion rotted away. The stump later became petrified. One of the flows blocked a river and t he resultant lake preserved dying plants and animals over the years in layers ash. There are many t rails but I only visited a few of the best sites. After all I needed time to go quarrying.