Florissant Fossil Beds
02.28.2026 • Florissant, COThe Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is located about 30 minutes from Manitou Springs,CO and this area is also designated Dark Sky Park" rated 2-3 on the Bortle Scale. It is basically a walking area with little elevation with trails passing by some interesting petrified Redwoods - wouldn't be awesome if they were still here - live ones seriously. There are a lot a fascinating things going on over there - Fossils, Petrified Redwoods and a vast history preserved.
The Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument is located about 30 minutes from east of Manitou Springs,CO. This area was named world’s newest international dark sky park (2021) by DarkSky.org and is rated 2-3 on the Bortle Scale. It seems that light pollution has increased by 10% in recent years so hopefully that isn't a trend. We spent a few hours there and think these are a few things that make it interesting - Fossils, Petrified Redwoods and a vast history preserved.
It was a nice cool day still being winter when we arrived. The first stop was the visiter center to ask a few question about the main attractions. The staff are friendly and guided us to a trail that passes by some of the main petrified Redwoods but we basically forgot the details and couldn't determine which trail is which but ended up on Petrified Forest Loop. This loop has the Big Stump - the largest largest stump. This path is a short 1.1 mile loop with about 70' elevation gain.
Along the trail you find several petrified stumps, distant snow covered mountain peaks and expansive grass fields that make for interesting photos.
The Petrified Forest Loop trail is one of many and I think there are about 14 miles of total trails that might be fun if you are looking for more distance - the Hornbek Wildlife Loops sounds interesting. I missed a few opportunities by not walking a few more trails but I was there mostly for b-roll video and photos. Here are a few.
Note: There is a Llama farm down the road about 7 miles across from a gas station.
