Sunday May 18, 2014

Non-Travel Day

 

Early this morning we traveled west on US 24 to the town
of Florissant and the “Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument” . This is a mountain valley that millions of years ago was a lush forest of giant redwood trees and lakes full of fish and
supporting rich insect and animal life. Over an extended period many volcanic eruptions buried the area in layer after of layer of mud, ash and stone, compressing the previous layers into rock and trapping leaves, insects, fish and other life forms between the rock layers
resulting in what we know today as fossils. Unfortunately we were unable to actually go into the fossil beds, as they are protected and reserved for research, but some are on display in the visitor’s center. There were also red wood tree stumps that have been petrified in the park that you could view from behind fences. Unlike the petrified trees in AZ
that were dark in color and lying on the ground, the trees here were very light in color, almost white, these were in the form of stumps where you could actually see the root flair and the diameter of the original tree. Leaving the National Park we headed south on County Rt 1 to the town of Cripple Creek, and along the way we saw several mule deer grazing along the roadside, and passed a large Llama farm . Cripple Creek is an old gold mining town that
after the mines dried up became depressed, but recently a Colorado law allowed for limited gambling in a few towns. The town is now revitalized and looking very good; however, the casinos and their restaurants dominate the landscape. After a brief walk down the main street we returned to the truck and left town. We then spent several hours at the Cripple Creek Heritage Center, where they had wonderful displays on the history of the town and gold mining industry. Leaving Cripple Creek we headed over several back roads, some of them dirt,
to the “American Eagle Overlook” this was an overlook on the mining company’s property that overlooked a huge open pit gold mining operation. From the overlook the trucks and other
equipment looked like miniature toys, it was quite exciting to watch theoperation. From there we headed to “Victor”
another small mining town. Leaving “Victor”
we headed north on State Road 67, the “Gold Belt Tour Scenic & Historic
Byway”, this was a beautiful ride through the mountainside country. Reaching US 24 we turned east and went back
to the campground.