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Admission to the National Monument was $3/person. The monument is located off Highway 24 just south of the town Florissant, about an hour drive from Colorado Springs. Take a hike on a self-guided 1 mile trail to get a closer look at some fossilized redwood stumps. Looking at these snowy pictures makes it hard to imagine that during the Eocene (35 million years ago) this place was a humid lake and shoreline teaming with insects, fish, mammals, mollusks, birds, towering redwoods and cedars. How were these giant stumps preserved? Volcanic eruptions spit ash and lava all around the region, blanketing the forest and quickly burying the lower parts of the tree trunks. The trees died, but their stumps remained protected and preserved. Below is artist Rob Wood's depiction of what Florissant looked like 35 million years ago.
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