Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Today Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is a wonderland of meadows, forests, and wildflowers.Noting this brilliance, an early settler from Missouri gave this area his hometown's name since it means"flowering" in French. Yet 35 million years ago a description would tell another tale. Lake Florissant,stretching 15 miles through an ancient forested valley, dominates the scene. Lush ferns and shrubs thriveunder towering redwoods, cedars, pines, and a colorful mixed hardwood forest of maples, hickories, and oaks. In this warm, humid climate, thousands upon thousands of insects crawl, fly, and buzz about. Fish,mollusks, birds, and mammals inhabit the lake and its shores.

Nearby, a volcano rumbles. In the past, volcanic mud flows blanketed parts of the forest surrounding Lake Florissant, killing entire trees. Now, as the volcano again erupts violently, the devastation is widespread.The exploding volcano showers the countryside with millions of tons of ash, dust, and pumice. Caught inthis deadly cloud, insects, leaves, fish -- anything that cannot escape -- die, and many fall to the lake bottom,where they are buried. These eruptions occur again and again for perhaps as long as 700,000 years. Eachtime, fragments of life are trapped in a layer of volcanic sediments at the bottom of the lake. Eventually these sediments become a finely layered shale and transform the buried plant and animal life into fossils.

Today Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument preserves this site. The fossil beds are internationallyrenowned for the variety and number of fossils-particularly of insects and plants-they have yielded sincetheir discovery in the late 1800s. Paleontologists have collected more than 60,000 specimens formuseums and universities around the world. These fossils reveal, in remarkable detail, what life of solong ago was like. Ever so fragile and tiny a creature as a butterfly may be preserved as a fossil thatclearly shows its antennae, legs, hairs, and the pattern of its wings. Massive petrified redwood stumps areevidence that ancient life here had its giants, too. Yet, little remains of other ancient Lake Florissant life.Fossil bones, teeth, shells, and feather impressions reveal the existence of mollusks, fish, birds, opossums,mesohippus (an ancestor of the modern horse), and oreodonts (extinct pig-like animals). But unless amammal or bird actually died in or near the lake its chances of preservation were very slim. Future scientific explorations promise to unearth more of Florissant's"buried treasures."

Fossils of Ancient Lake Florissant
The rich deposits discovered at Florissant Fossil Beds give us an unusually detailed look at life in anancient North America. These impressions of prehistoric plants and animals are relatively young ingeologic terms. The Florissant fossils hint at what life may have been like about 35 million years agoduring the Oligocene Epoch; approximately 30 million years after the age of dinosaurs and at least 33million years before humans appeared. Today most of Florissant's fossils are exhibited and studied atvarious museums and universities. A small number are displayed in the park visitor center. Others, unfortunately, have been taken as private souvenirs over the years; what valuable information they mighthave provided cannot be known, for each fossil is an irreplaceable piece in the puzzle of the past.Fortunately millions of other fossils in yet undisturbed portions of the fossil beds are now protected by thepark.

Fossil Plants: Fossils of an incredibly diverse mix of more than 100 species of trees and otherplants have been discovered at Florissant. Most commonly fossil leaves are found, but fossil twigs, seeds,cones, flowers, and pollen grains also occur. Like the insects, plant fragments have usually beenpreserved as life size, color enhanced impressions. A quite different type of plant fossil found atFlorissant consists of massive petrified stumps of redwoods and other trees. They stand today where theywere buried by volcanic mud flows millions of years ago. The stumps turned to stone as minerals seeped into the wood and gradually crystallized within living tissue. The fossil record suggests that the ancientforest was not like any now in Colorado. In it grew many trees and shrubs whose closest living relativesare now found in widely scattered places such as the southeastern United States, Mexico, China, andSouth America.

Fossil Insects: Insects are rarely preserved as fossils because they are so fragile. But thevolcanic ash mixture that fell on Lake Florissant was finer than talcum powder and ideal for the delicatejob of preservation. Thousands of insect fossils have been recovered from the fine grained, fossil-bearingshales. An amazing number of insect species-more than 1,100 have been identified. The insects areusually preserved as exquisitely detailed impressions in the shale, colored brown or black by a thin residueof organic matter-all that remains of the actual living thing. Some insects look perfect, other are crushed, and some are just parts: a delicate wing, a headless body. The fossils indicate that insects 35 million yearsago were much like those today. However, many types that once lived at Lake Florissant no longer inhabitColorado. Some like the tsetse fly, are gone from North America. Others are wholly extinct.

Visiting the Monument
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is today a land of rolling hills and meadows with forests ofponderosa pine, spruce, fir, and aspen. It is in the high country of the Rocky Mountains west of Pike'sPeak. Obvious signs of the ancient scene are scant. Surface exposures, of the paper-thin, light-gray fossil-bearing shales occur in only a few spots and easily erode. Fossils are best seen in the visitor center exhibits and on two interpretive trails. In today's cooler, drier climate pronghorn antelope, elk, deer,porcupines, and golden eagles live, as do insects of all kinds. Florissant is French for flowering, andmeadow and wildflowers offer excellent opportunities for photography and enjoying nature throughout the summer.

Visitor Center: The visitor center serves as a museum and information center. Fossils and otherexhibits are on display and books and brochures are available. Schedules of talks and other specialactivities are posted. Park programs and your own imagination will help you discover the present andbring the past to life. A picnic area is nearby. The park offers environmental education programs forschool groups; please call for details. The center is open daily 9 a.m to 5:30 p.m. in the summer, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in winter; closed Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and New Years Day.

Trails: The park has more than 10 miles of trails. On A Walk through Time, a 1/2-mile loop trail you can see the fossil bearing shales and petrified stumps. The 1-mile Petrified Forest Loop leads to several petrified stumps, including Big Stump, the remains of a giant sequoia 74 feet incircumference. Both trails are wheelchair accessible. Other trails explore the park's forests and meadows,alive with the plants and animals that have taken the place of ancient life. Ask for a trail brochure.

The Hornbek Homestead: The 1878 Hornbek Homestead recalls the life of early pioneers.Many were drawn to the region by gold, but Adeline Hornbek and her children-like many others came tofarm and ranch. The historic site includes the original cabin and a reconstructed barn, carriage shed, androot cellar.

Other Activities: In the winter, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are permitted. Picnickingand horseback riding are enjoyed year round. Contact a ranger for information.

Nearby Visitor Services: Lodging, restaurants, gasoline, and groceries are available in thetown of Florissant, 2 miles north. Colorado Springs, with the range of facilities of a modern metropolitanarea, is 30 miles east and easily reached on U.S. 24. Public and private campgrounds are nearby.

Weather: Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, elevation 8400 feet (2560 meters) , has atypical mountain climate. Summers are generally of short duration with warm days and cool nights. Freezing temperatures can and often do occur during summer months. Temperatures begin to dropsignificantly in September and snow is not uncommon in early fall. In winter months, one can experiencesevere temperature drops. Temperatures begin to moderate in spring, but sub-zero lows can still occur. In1992, 35 sub-zero days were recorded. In February 1989, a record cold wave kept temperatures belowzero for 72 hours.

Climate in this area is dry. Average total precipitation (rain, melted snow, etc,) is approximately 15 inches annually, with most of that coming in the form of afternoon showers during the periodfrom did-May to mid-September. Snowfall can occur any month of the year but is most commonduring Late fall and early spring. Total annual snowfall amounts average about 50 inches with amaximum accumulation of approximately 1.5 to 2 feet. The moisture equivalent of snow here is quitelow: a 20:1 ratio (inches of snow per inch of liquid precipitation) is a good guide for snows in January,February, and March, while a ratio as low as 12:1 will apply for the spring and fall months.