Alamosa--Florrisant Fossil Beds National Monument--Colorado Springs, CO, June 3

Beautiful drive through the San Luis Valley and then across the mountains to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. Not many fossils to see as the visitor center is still closed (Covid), but there are the most amazing petrified redwood tree stumps. They're 34 million years old! These redwood trees are related to the coast redwoods of California (Sempervirens).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Driggs, ID -- Upper Mesa Falls -- West Yellowstone, Montana, June 18

Image
Started with a nice local history museum in Driggs. Mostly about pioneers and ranching, somehow it was nice to see some well-worn and obvious much-loved saddles. Also a list of how many lashes kids got for various misbehaviors as well as rules for the teachers. Of course, women lost their job if they married. (For those missing rock pictures, it's there--the water is flowing over volcanic tuff.) Then went to both Lower and Upper Mesa Falls. The lower falls were beautiful, but the upper falls truly spectacular. Dinner was delicious: elk ravioli in a wild mushroom sauce.
Read more

Bodie Ghost Town, Alabama Hills, May 19

Image
First stop today was Bodie State State Historic Site--a goldrush era town that was ~8000 in it's heyday. The town is being preserved in a state of "arrested decay", meaning they're not restoring things but rather trying to preserve them as they were when the last residents left. Didn't see any ghosts but definitely interesting.  Next stop was the Alabama Hills, near Lone Pine. Spectacular rock formations! We took a short hike through some of the rocks, to the Mobius Arch.  Then on to Ridgecrest for the night.
Read more

Tucson, Day 1, May 22

Image
Spent the morning catching up on important things like laundry. Then drove to the Amerind museum. Really nice museum--spectacular jewelry, baskets and pottery. Unfortunately, no photos allowed in the museum, but the view from where we had our picnic lunch was great.
Read more