It's not every day that we see fossils from the Eocene era!
Last night Rob was double checking the route and itinerary for today and learned that the Pike's Peak scenic drive up to 14,000 feet required both a timed entry pass and individual admittance passes (pricey at $15/person!). Before he processed the transaction online, he double checked the rules of the road for accessing the peak. Unfortunately, no trailers of any size or kind. So, we scrapped that and decided to spend more time at the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.
We woke to skies that continued to drip a bit. Rob left the cover on the bike as long as possible and we delayed departure to 8:30am since we weren't under a time limit today, other than getting to Manitou Springs around 4pm. We filled up with fuel across the street and bought drinks for our picnic lunch. Our route was about 1 hour 45 minutes to the Fossil Beds taking US291, then US285 North, then US24 East into the town of Florissant.
We picked up Country Road 1 for a few miles into the Monument area. As we were unpacking, a lady (Harriet) asked where in Virginia we're from. She lived in Reston before moving to Colorado 34 years ago, and her best friend lives in Purcellville. She told us to visit the Flower Farm there that her friend owns as this is the last year before it closes for good. We had not heard of it so we will check it out.
There is a nice Visitor's Center where we watched a short movie about how the fossils were formed and discovered in this very unique area. Apparently this area possibly has the largest number of fossils in the world - over 50,000 specimens of 1,500 insects, 150 plants, the world's only known tsetse fly fossil, a bird, fish and opossum. Also, there are several fossil redwood stumps. All of this occurred 34 million years ago. The pacific plates shifted and caused several volcanic eruptions. The eruptions and a climate change created a mud slide that created an ancient lake bed. It was in this lake that the fossils collected. The fossils, like the tsetse fly that is only found today in tropical Africa, indicated that the area was once very tropical--very unlike the Colorado climate today. During early homesteading, a lady who raised her 6 children in the area found the fossils and worked with legit scientists to have them properly excavated. Also, when the lake formed it killed off giant redwood trees, some of which were 500-700 years old at that point! What remains are these special and very large petrified stumps.
We found all this so fascinating! After the movie we walked over to a staged excavation area where a very smart older gent, "Doctor Bob" who has a PhD in minerology, told us about the pacific plates and interesting factoids. Such as these three trunks are the only known fossilized trio in the entire world! They are held together with metal strapping to preserve them and have a very nice covered roof above.
Then we walked the Petrified Forest Loop to see more of the tree trunks. After many decades of pilfering of the fossils and stumps (Mr. Disney even bought one), the area went through the legal process for preservation and got it in 1969. It had almost become a housing development.
After that short hike, we went back to the bike and got our lunch and picnic gear. We had a nice lunch overlooking the area and amongst curious birds, chipmunks and small squirrels.
After lunch, we did a 2.6-mile hike called Sawmill Trail. It went through the Ponderosa Pine groves and was a quiet hike (except for mosquitos). Pike's Peak (first pic below) is in the distance partially covered by clouds. Temps at the top were forecasted to be in the upper 30's today. Brrrr! We saw a few hummingbirds enjoying the orange Indian Paintbrush wildflowers and the chatter of chickadees as we walked along the trail.
Once done with the hike, we went back into the Visitor Center to see the fossils and exhibits again. At 2pm we were done and got all our gear packed and swapped our hiking gear for road gear to make our way the nearly 2 hours to Manitou Springs. We remarked to each other that it was better we couldn't visit Pike's Peak because we would have been too rushed at this really amazing and educational place and likely could not have done the second hike. Rob said it doesn't matter because we'll visit Mt. Evans which is higher in elevation and is free.
Rob planned a scenic route to get to Manitou Springs on County Road 1 South to Cripple Creek then CO67 North. Forgive this partially blurry photo, but there were so many llamas of every color that Michele had to share it. These llamas were at a place called Stage Stop Llamas.
Cripple Creek was a unique city, it was extremely hilly and traffic had to be diverted for construction. Amongst older homes, a gigantic (ugly) cement building was being built. Michele thinks it was a new casino, as another one touting the highest casino in the world (9,000+ feet) was already in town. It is also part of the Gold Belt Scenic Tour through historic gold rush towns. They also seemed to be still mining for something, as the mountain was stripped of its beauty.
We then picked up US24 East into Manitou Springs. Upon arrival, we saw that the driveway was a bit sketchy to get both a heavy motorcycle and trailer down (together they weigh almost 1,500lbs).
Michele walked down it to inspect and walked back up to report to Rob. The last bit would be very tricky at a sudden drop off under a portico. Rob turned off the bike and went to look for himself. He came back up. Upon initial inspection it didn't look possible to park the bike and trailer and then be able to turn around to drive back up. After some more thought he said he was going to try to pull it under the portico in such a way that he could finagle a U-turn to drive back out. Backing up was not an option uphill. Nor were there other spots as two other cars were already there. He got back on the bike and slowly made his way down the driveway and maneuvered the bike so he could get it turned around to drive back out. The Wing is parked right in front of our bedroom door at the back of the house.
The worst part was the debris (fine pebbles and sand) and mud from yesterday's heavy rain, it accumulated and made it difficult for Rob to get traction with his feet. He used a big broom nearby to clear it all out. Michele is so impressed and proud of him for parking in this tricky spot. Let's see if he can get it out tomorrow! Hopefully leaving and coming back tomorrow will be smoother! Another lesson learned is to confirm via satellite the parking situation. Our large and beautiful apartment rental makes up for that bit of stress. Rob was surprised when he saw the front living room and kitchen, thinking we only had the bedroom area. We're here for 3 nights and have a full kitchen, porch and washer and dryer.
It will be nice to have a real kitchen to eat in for a few days. Last night we used our foldable picnic table in our hotel room to eat our takeout dinner. It worked though!
Tomorrow we visit the Garden of the Gods public park in nearby Colorado Springs for more amazing scenery!
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