GCNDCJ Earthcache Redwoods of Stone Earthcache
Type: Earth | Size: Not chosen Not chosen | Difficulty: 1 out of 5 | Terrain: 1.5 out of 5
By: nursegirl @ | Hide Date: 04/09/2005 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N38° 55.108 W105° 17.166 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 89
No Dogs  Access or parking fee  Recommended for kids  Takes less than an hour  Scenic view  Parking available  Public restrooms nearby  Picnic tables nearby 
 Cache photos

Petrified Redwood Stump.jpg

This earthcache is located in Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Florissant, Colorado. The park is open year round, except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day from 9am to 5pm. Park fees are $3 for adults; children 16 and under are free. Dogs are not permitted in the park. For directions to the park, visit their website at: http://www.nps.gov/flfo/ While there, please observe park rules and do not wander off the marked trails. It is illegal to remove any fossils or specimens from the park and is punishable by fines.

Nearly 35 million years ago, the area that is now Florissant, Colorado was a lake surrounded by lush ferns, towering redwoods and forests of hardwood trees. The climate was warmer and more humid making it an ideal place for thousands of species of insects, as well as fish, birds, mollusks and mammals to thrive. Nearby volcanic eruptions showered the landscape with millions of tons of pumice and ash. Thousands of insect and plant lifeforms were buried in this sediment and eventually became the fossils that we see today. Today Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument preserves this site. You can walk the trails and see the giant redwood stumps or see fascinating fossils in the visitor center.

To get credit for this cache, post a photo of yourself standing in front of "the big stump" which can by found at the coordinates at the top of the cache page, and send me an e-mail with the answers to the following questions:

According to the interpretive signs behind the visitor's center, how tall were the giant redwood trees 34 million years ago?
How tall would you estimate the big stump is now?

Hope you enjoy this national treasure!
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 Logs

24 Logs: Found it 24  

Found it 06/30/2019 By piker
Out caching with the Pike Crew (piker and NVGoldFish). We are staying with our son (NVGoldFish) in Cripple Creek, CO for a couple of days.. We are then headed home to Bloomington, MN. We are out finding some caches today and seeing this part of CO.

I will e-mail the answers and post the picture she took, when my daughter-in-law e-mails it to me.

Thanks for this earth cache.

Found it 06/24/2019 By Lego Crew
Our 4th cache of the day. This park has been on our list of places to visit for years, so it was great to finally have an opportunity to explore it today. We began by hiking the 1-mile fossil loop, then added on another mile for the Geologic Trail. Later, after lunch, we hiked the 3.2 mile Boulder Creek Trail, which we really enjoyed for its isolation. A warm, day with calm winds and plenty of sunshine. Many thanks.

Found it 06/23/2019 By Gurath
Flowers should be in full bloom in another few weeks.

Found it 06/16/2019 By bflylady
Worth the lovely hike - thanks for keeping this earthcache going! Pic shows acousticman and me at GZ. Will email answers

Found it 06/16/2019 By McGregors
Why an very interesting park! The weather turned threatening, so we left a little sooner that we had meant. Thank you for this cache.

Found it 10/20/2018 By Tool King
Very cool. Really enjoyed our visit here.
Email sent for me and Hypno_Hawk.

Found it 10/12/2018 By White Spirit Bears
TFTC. We finally made it to this NM and really liked the many stumps. We hiked quite a few of the trails on a nice day.

Found it 10/12/2018 By Granitegrabber
I e-mailed the owner, a couple of minutes ago, of my findings on this cache. I hope I qualify. It was a beautiful morning for a cool walk. Was just after 9:00 a.m. and it was getting busy over there, but it was a Friday. I loved reading the signs and looking at all of the petrified redwood tree stumps in the area. Sad to see that they are suffering erosion problems and allot of them have bands around them to keep them together. Had a nice morning with my husband. TFTC

Found it 10/08/2018 By BigChiefS4
Day 1 of an epic 6 day journey out to the western frontier. I had some vacation time that I needed to burn up by the end of the year, and what better way to use it than to go Geocaching! My main goal was to find caches in New Mexico and Nevada, which would complete my map in the western US. The rest of the 4 remaining states are on the East Coast. Secondary goals were to find oldies, mostly virtuals, and high favorited caches. The only bad part of the trip was that it rained every single day of my vacation.

I headed south out of MN on Sunday and returned home on Friday.
Sunday - Drive all the way through to Colorado (15 hours!)
Monday - Cache in and around Denver and Colorado Springs, with an attempt at Pike's Peak (closed at Mile 14)
Tuesday - Head south towards GC19 and then west through Wolf Creek Pass
Wednesday - Four Corners monument and west towards Nevada
Thursday - After a night in Richfield, UT, head east through the skiing areas of Colorado towards Nebraska
Friday - The long drive home

Thanks to all the cache owners for placing these caches for me to find and for keeping the oldies going all these years.
This was a fun and very interesting EC to do.

Found it 09/03/2018 By walkerjmist
It is amazing how millions of years ago there were redwoods here in Colorado. Even the fact that there was humidity. Haha This has been so awesome to see the petrified stumps and fossils. TFTC

Found it 09/01/2018 By It Iz What It Iz
Gorgeous day to visit this National Park during our vacation in CO. We took time to explore the information and fossil imprints in the visitor's center. We also enjoyed a picnic lunch in the park with a black squirrel and blue bird watching close by. We hiked the Petrified Forest Loop, including the The Big Stump! Sad there's not much left... Enjoyed our walk in the park, and learning about the geological formations of the area. TFTC location

Found it 09/01/2018 By NorthernStorms
In the area for a geoevent, so we all stopped to get this one. Tftc!

Found it 09/01/2018 By Arbuckle35
Was at a Geoecent nearby, so grabbed this one too! What a beautiful day/hike! TFTC!

Found it 08/28/2018 By FresnoDancingFool
Good earthcache; my selfie will be attached to this log and my answers will be on their way shortly. Fine job and TFTC!

Found it 08/15/2018 By Leapin' Lee
We loved the geology and the history of the area. Thanks for the very interesting EC.
GCNDCJ

Found it 08/09/2018 By safechrisLaurie
Well...I really wanted to see this in person...and I did. I just didn't expect to take the "scenic" route to get here!

We hiked to here from the ranch we were staying at. It took us about 1.5 hours just to get here and that last trek up and down the 8500 feet elevation just about did us in! The visitor center was closed by the time we got here, so there is no way to answer the required questions.

It was an amazing 3 hour and 8 mile round trip hike! Time with my honey, amazing views, wildlife encounters including seeing a snake, some rabbits, prairie dogs, deer, and some cool birds!

Wish we could have spent more time on the trails here, but we had to head back. Not sure I wanted to be on this trail after dark!

This was our most ambitious hiking trip since coming arriving here from Minnesota where the elevation is only about 900 feet!

Thanks for the Adventure! I highly recommend the "scenic" route...just give yourself a little more time to enjoy the fossils when you get here!

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A view along the way.
Wildlife encounter along the way
Indian Paintbrush
We took the "scenic" view!

Found it 07/28/2018 By Aidfuts
Great day for a beautiful walk!
Big Stump

Found it 07/25/2018 By KianaKai
Found today with Dan1868 and Birdicus. Photo is Birdicus and me - email on its way!

This was a really cool earthcache!

(Bring sunscreen and wear a hat in the summer - not a lot of shade out here!)

GCNDCJ

Found it 07/23/2018 By captain rob
enjoyed the area very much. thanks for the cache and information.

Found it 07/21/2018 By miriamethubert
Great place, the boys loved it, they earned their Junior Ranger badge!! I’ll send the answers.
TFTC.
big stump

Found it 07/20/2018 By EV1102

Tftc. What a wonderful Geocache.
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Found it 07/17/2018 By PathfinderMark
We cache as a family as we travel. We live in MD yet have found caches in 48 states, DC, and four Canadian provinces. Thanks for hiding this cache for us to find!

We are caching counties, parks, and states this month as we quest for Hidden Creatures souvenirs!
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Found it 07/16/2018 By Cacher_Alec
Tftc. Caching with Katie~Did and PathfinderMark, who sent in answers.

Found it 07/16/2018 By Katie~Did
TFTC thanks for the geocache! I love traveling and caching with my family! PathfinderMark is my Daddy, and he sends in answers for virtuals and earthcaches since I can't write YET! My brother is Cacher_Alec, he likes caching too!

On our trip across the USA we found some great GADGET caches (FUN!), some powertrail caches, a lot of virtuals and earthcaches, and some REGULAR SIZE caches to trade toys. It has been a great vacation!