Agile Trekker: Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, CO

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/18/2024	6.2 miles	3 hours 19 minutes	436'	2.5 mph	336.7 miles

Parking:

Hornbeck Homestead
Note this is a national park, so a fee or pass is required: Fees & Passes - Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)

Map:

2023-Hiking-Trail-Update.pdf (nps.gov)
Gai GPS app

Directions:

Cross the street from the Hornbeck Homestead. Turn right on the road and then pick up the Hornbeck Trail. Turn left onto Twin Rock Trail. Follow the Twin Rock Trail to the end. Return the same way (though we skipped the road walk and followed the Hornbeck Trail back to the homestead).

We drove early to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. The park doesn't open until 9am, and the park gates were locked. We drove down the road and found a parking lot at Hornbeck Homestead. We walked across the street & picked up the trail. We did an out and back, a nice hike. We only encountered one other person on the trail. We scanned the trail for fossils, but at this point it is rare to find them. Many have been collected already. Now, it is illegal to collect any. This trail has a ton of prairie dogs. They are really hard to photograph, because whenever they saw us, they'd run or pop into their holes. We sat down on the trail for a while, trying to convince them we weren't a threat, but they didn't buy it. On our way back, we stopped at a reflective pond for a break. We saw elk in the woods during our hike. Also, a new animal for me - Albert squirrels. They are black squirrels with the cutest ear tufts. And another animal - Wyoming ground squirrels. When we returned to the Hornbeck Homestead, they were just opening up the homestead for tours. We had an informative volunteer tell us the history of the homestead, built by a woman.

After our hike, we went to the visitor center to see the fossils and go on our second hike in the park...