Florissant Fossil Beds

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Kid-friendly and budget-friendly activities abound in close proximity to the cabin, and we took advantage of one of those activities—The Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Florissant, CO.

The Fossil Beds is a fascinating place, especially if you’re into geology and fossils. Years ago, large REDWOOD trees existed near Florissant. Yes! Redwoods, like the ones which are now only found in California’s redwood forests, grew in the now-national-park.

When the redwoods grew near Florissant, the climate was milder. A volcano erupted and the mud slide it caused buried the huge trunks of the redwoods, leaving the tops exposed. The tops of the trees died, fell off, and rotted, still leaving the bottom parts of the trunks under the thick mud. Those under-mud stumps’ cells were slowly filled with “soaked up” mineral substances and became petrified. In other words, they turned to rock! A “prehistoric lake” existed and covered much of the valley floor, along with the redwoods and petrified trees, somewhere in the thousands of year’s timeline. Someone eventually came across one of these petrified trees and carefully dug down to the bottom of the tree trunk, exposing a “rock tree stump” with a huge diameter and easily over 10 feet tall. Then they uncovered a few more. I heard one of the park rangers say geologists believe many more petrified trees are buried under the national park, though discovering them and carefully preserving them takes time, and lots of it!

We paid the $6 fee to enter the park ($3 per adult 12 and older), then ate our picnic lunch before beginning on our explorations. The real fun began after our picnic.

Sure, my kids found the “rock trees” interesting, but the most memorable part of the day for everyone was our hike. Madalynn and Justis’s memories will include frolicking along the beautiful trails, noting beautiful trees, animal tracks, animal poop, and wildflowers.

Dawson and Jillian’s memories will include anticipating the end of the trail! Jillian’s Fossil Beds National Park experience started off on the wrong foot, as she promptly fell and scraped her arm on the asphalt in the parking lot. She cried and cried AND CRIED, fearing she was on the verge of death according to the little blood visible to her under the surface of her scraped skin. Then she cried because she needed a band-aid. She was ALL about the first .4 miles of what ended up being our 2.3-mile hike, then it’s like she asked herself the question, “Hey, where are these crazy people taking me, and when will I see a building or something familiar again?” She whined and cried and tried to assert her unwillingness to walk alone by standing way behind us with folded arms and refusing to go any further without being carried—until she really realized we were not going to carry her the whole way. She would then run after us trying to catch up again while crying and screaming, “Don’t leave me, Mommy and Daddy!”

Dawson was a little affected by the altitude and the fact he chose to wear jeans, a long-sleeved western shirt and his cowboy boots to hike in. He learned the hard way that clothes that make him look good aren’t always the most practical or comfortable for the activity he’ll be doing that day. He, too, wanted to be carried and thought this hiking stuff was for the birds. He also refused to smile or look at the camera for any picture I tried to take of him!

Travis and I, needless to say, hiked holding Dawson and Jillian off-and-on during the entire 2.3 miles. Talk about a workout! Whew!

Midway on our hike we came to what the park has named “The Caves.” A beautiful crop of boulders are the source of a spring that Jillian and Justis, who were wearing Crocs, were able to wash their feet in. They got to go exploring under the “caves,” (the spaces under the rocks) and thought that was pretty cool.

The last 1.6 miles were the hardest. We had to explain to Jillian and Dawson that we could not drive the jeep into the park and along the trail to come pick them up, and that we actually had to walk all the way back to the head of the trail. I began encouraging them to anticipate the cold jug of lemonade waiting for them in the vehicle when we got to the end of the trail.

Jillian finally saw the ranger station and lunged to make a b-line and cut across the “off the trail” landscape so she could get to that lemonade faster. I caught her before she ran across the protected landscape and had just enough time to teach her and the other kids a little national park etiquette (i.e. stay on the trails, don’t pick the flowers or try to bring home rocks, etc.) before we got back to the ranger station.

I went into the ranger station to look at the books while Travis took the kids straight to the jeep for some refreshing pink lemonade. I came out finally, and all but half of Jillian’s third cup of pink lemonade was the only pink lemonade left after thirsty Travis and kids were finished. She unselfishly offered me the last of her drink with a big smile.

“Did you have fun?” I asked her. “Yes, ma’am!” she said. I guess pink lemonade can make all of a 2-year-old’s dilemmas disappear.

We got home tired, but a happy tired, and Madalynn, Justis, Dawson and Jillian took refreshing baths and put their PJs on.