Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

We did get up to Cripple Creek today. I should have a few days of photos to post here on the blog. So far, I have some really good images to share.

Before getting to Cripple Creek we stopped at Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. So, those images will be first. Neither of us had ever been to this monument before.
Here is Susan in front of some of the petrified stumps. Nicely enough the park rangers provided a wheelchair for us to us. More recently Susan was walking down the stairs, fell, and fractured her ankle. She also tore quite a few ligaments, and muscles. Walking is not easy for her as a result.

At the museum there was a fossil fish that caught my eye so I captured a couple of images of it. The textures of the bones is amazing.

This is one of the stumps. Apparently the original tree had died and three starters grew up around the stump. These tree stumps are estimated to be about 34 million years old. Believe it or not they are Redwood trunks. The textures are just amazing. I might turn this image into a black and white.

Here's a close up of one of the trunks. The coloring and textures are amazing. When you're doing a black and white you want a lot of texture since the texture takes the place of the color.

Some of the pathways on Ponderosa Loop trail which is where I took Susan.

On several of the petrified tree trunks they wrapped them with cable. I guess in an effort to keep them together.

Here it looks like the petrified tree split on the tree ring lines.

That's it for now. I still have a lot more to post so be watching for the next. Have a great day and try to enjoy your life a bit. That's what I'm attempting to do.