We left Colorado Springs around 10 am with bright sunshine and cool temps in the 40’s. We decided to take the road less traveled, route 24 then route 9 to I- 70 over the mountains to get to Moab.
We detoured off route 24 and stopped at the Florissant Fossil Beds in Florissant, Colorado.
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument has yielded over 50,000 museum specimens from fossils of over 1,700 species of insects, plants and one of the world’s only known fossil records of tsetse fly, now found only in equatorial Africa. No big bones were found but only delicate fossil insects wings and finely veined leaves locked in paper thin shale.
34 million years ago there were redwood trees in Colorado. Redwood trees that were killed and petrified by dissolved silica in the groundwater. The remnants of some of these trees are evident throughout the fossil beds.
We hiked the trails to view the petrified stumps(all that is left of the trees) and had hail/snow or snail fall on our heads. We were at 9,000 feet so it was around 37 degrees and feeling much like a New England winter.
After leaving the fossil beds we headed over the mountain pass. During the 5 hour ride we ran into many different weather patterns making the ride very challenging.
First sun, then rain, then sun , then hail, then sun, then rain, then snow and then a snow storm and finally clear weather. At every elevation something different happened.
Despite the weather the scenery was spectacular and we couldn't help but enjoy the views.
We drove through Breckenridge and Vail both famous ski resorts. Interestingly, despite all the snow both places were ghost towns, but beautiful.
We were told by people we met that the pass over the mountains that we traveled was closed last week due to eight feet of snow. WOW, glad we didn’t try this last week!!
Once we got to a lower elevation the sun came out once again and the only evidence of snow was on the mountain peaks. The temp had dropped to 32 degrees but quickly jumped into the 50’s.
Although it was a challenging drive/ride down the steep snow covered roads it was beautiful but also tiring for the both of us. We pulled into a rest area that also provided us with beautiful scenery. We parked along a fast moving river and could see the snow-capped mountains outside our window. We turned in early and planned to get to Moab tomorrow with hopefully the warm weather as promised by the trusty weather men.
0 comments:
Post a Comment