Friday, July 10, 2015

Florissant Fossil Beds NM, CO


Above and below, Eleven Mile State Park (CO) borders Eleven Mile Lake,
a man-made lake on the South Platte River.  We camped here 3 nights while visiting
Cripple Creek and Florissant NM.

Our Cougar is in the lower left above, with Terry and Lisa's Sunseeker behind it.





What the sign doesn't say: volcanic activity caused this area to be entombed in 15'
 of super hot mud.  It happened very rapidly, capturing multitudinous specimens of
 flora and fauna that lived here 34 million years ago.


A giant redwood that was 16' in diameter when the volcano blew its top.  
Now, it's petrified wood, one of many such stumps in the area.

We've had thunderstorms every afternoon for several days.  Yesterday, a funnel cloud was spotted across the lake so the park rangers were hustling around, warning all the campers and fishermen to be aware of the danger.  They told everyone to beat feet to the brownstone vault toilet buildings for shelter if we saw a tornado approaching.  We didn't and apparently no one else did either.  

Interesting scenario though, huddling up in a odoriferous little hut, making all kinds of new friends, hoping none of them got the crap scared out of 'em. 

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