Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, CO

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/18/2024	3.6 miles	1 hour 37 minutes	312'	2.4 mph	340.3 miles

Parking: 

• Visitor center
• 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: Take the Sawmill Trail from the visitor center. Turn right onto Hans Loop. Keep straight onto the Sawmill Trail. Keep straight onto the Hornbek Trail. Turn left onto the Petrified Forest Loop Trail and follow it clockwise back to the visitor center.

After we finished our morning hike, we stopped by the visitor center to do hike #2. This hike had views of Pike's Peak but wasn't as nice as our first hike - some of it was hiking on dirt roads rather than trails. We added in a loop to see the petrified redwoods, which were amazing. By the end, it started thundering and we had a very cold rain and sleet, while we were out in the open prairie. I walked as fast as I could back to the visitor center.  Brrr. Back at the visitor center we looked at fossils and watched a movie about the park's history. We learned that old large redwoods used to exist in many places around the world, but now are just in a couple of states out west. The only redwoods you'll see in this park are the petrified ones.

A couple of the petrified stumps had covers built over them.
The metal band is to protect it from falling apart more.

A tree with 3 petrified stumps, again protected.

Bearberry

Pasqueflower

Pasqueflower

"Old Stump"
It has a saw blade in it, from when they tried to cut a slice to bring to a World's Fair.

Time to get back to the visitor center asap

I don't have a national park passport, but my sketchbook works just fine.
I like the Junior Ranger stamps the best :)