Colorado Sightseeing (part one)

Last month we ventured down the interstate to Colorado Springs for some spring break sightseeing. The landscape was dry as usual--mostly yellow and gray, with hints of green--and the skies were clear blue and blindingly sunny. It's so different from the verdant springs of Indiana (where Ben and I grew up) or Connecticut (where we went to grad school), but absolutely beautiful in it's own way.

We started our trip with a visit to the Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, where there are thousands upon thousands of plant, insect, and animal fossils embedded between layers of shale from an ancient lakebed.

Some of the fossils found at the site are amazingly detailed, such as this wasp and cocoa plant flower (both taken from the Insect and Plant Fossils Gallery):

Henry was excited to find (what we think is) a fossil during a hike around the park. (After taking these pictures we promptly replaced the rock along the edge of the path were it was found!)

Violet also had fun picking up and examining small rocks, because she wants to do whatever Henry does :)



In addition to the tiny fossils in the shale, there are also huge fossils of petrified redwood stumps. What an exotic, foreign land Colorado was long ago!

We visited a small homestead at the monument which was settled by Adeline Hornbek (a single mother!) in the 1800's. It was a fancy house for it's time, ornately decorated in the Victorian style, with two stories, four bedrooms, and real glass windows.