Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

Badger Flats to the San Luis Valley, CO | Visiting Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument | Camping in the San Luis Valley | October 2024

We began this morning with packing up from our campsite in Badger Flats area, and continuing our road trip. We drove East briefly on US-24 to enter Teller county, which was new for us, then stopped to visit a National Monument just South of Florissant: Florissant Fossil Beds. We arrived just after opening and found just a few other visitors here. After a quick stop in the visitor center, we took turns walking the one mile Petrified Forest interpretive loop trail. Dogs aren’t allowed on the trails, but can be in the picnic area, so Charlotte spent her time here either sniffing around that area and the parking lot, or taking brief naps at one of the tables.

The park is protected and preserved by the National Park Service because of its petrified redwood stumps and thousands of fossils, which give us a hint of the rich history from this area. Right behind the visitor center are massive stumps, then halfway on the loop trail is the main highlight, the “Big Stump.” The loop trail offered views of where now dried up Florissant Lake one existed, the Hornbek Homestead in the distance, and there were plenty of informative signs along the way. It was about a mile long, and we each took about a half an hour to walk through the park. There are another 13 miles of trails in the park, but we were fine with our one trail since Charlotte couldn’t go on any others, and the petrified stumps right next to the visitor center are easily the highlight of the park. After that, we drove South on the county road, crossed into Fremont County, and eventually made it back to CO-9. We took that South to US-50, then continued West.

Overall, the driving was much more scenic today than it had been going from Beaver Creek to Badger Flats, but the highlight was definitely driving through Bighorn Canyon on US-50. The road was winding and slow going at times, but offered gorgeous views of the canyon and Arkansas river. We also saw bighorn twice along the drive! We saw some potential for camping here, but most of it was paid and also pretty close to the highway, though on the other side of the river. Plus the steep canyon walls don’t let in a lot of cell service which was a necessity for us this week. Maybe we’ll return another day after we have done more research for things to do here. Today we drove to Salida and Poncha Springs, then went South on US-285.

We drove over the pass, and entered into the San Luis Valley. We knew that there was plenty of BLM land to the West and areas where we could camp, so we turned off the highway in search of a spot. We had high hopes that one area would work out because it would be near a trailhead for Curtis, but the road was far too rutted and sandy for us to feel comfortable driving with only 2wd. Instead, we drove a little further South, where we found gravel roads in better condition, and drove back towards public land where we could camp for free. Once we crossed into BLM land, we took the first available spot we could find, that had clearly been used before by other campers. We had to stay vigilant to keep Charlotte from eating things she shouldn’t or walking into prickly pear cactus, but aside from that it was a decent spot to spend the night. We had a little bit of reception, Curtis could do a little hiking, and we had great views across the valley, which turned into a spectacular spot to watch the sunset!

Curtis: I decided to just try to climb to the nearest peak, which happened to be right behind our campsite. There was a nice 4×4 trail that led up to the base of the peak, but after that it was bushwhacking only. My way up ended up being very steep and I stopped frequently to catch my breath and admire the views to the East. The Sangre de Cristo range across the valley from us had big scary clouds over them, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if snow was falling on the higher peaks.

I eventually reached the top of the ridge which was a large block of rocky outcrop. The views to the east were fantastic and even the BLM land around where we were parked was scenic with a small hacienda tucked up the valley. I decided to follow the ridge up a ways to try and score a peak (not for challenge, just because) but after I lost a couple hundred feet of elevation I lost all my desire to bushwhack back up. The weather also looked like it was coming across the valley towards us so it was probably for the best.

But, I also didn’t want to re-ascend back the way I had come. And so I made the slightly controversial decision to navigate my way around the little peak I had just been at. There was some risk deciding to do this, particularly because I couldn’t see the entire route because of the trees and mountain. But I also think that small challenges like this make me better at way-finding and help me be safer in the long run.

I ended up bushing my way down a gulley before contouring around the side of the mountain back almost exactly to the end of the 4×4 trail, which I think is a testament to my ability. And I even managed to make it back to the van before the wind hit.

The sunset that evening cast a gorgeous golden light across the valley, which faded into pinks and purples before it finally went dark. We loved the views, but agreed we didn’t feel the need to stay here more than one night. After over a week of camping in the Rockies, we were ready to follow our desire to go to the desert. And though we couldn’t go as far as Arizona or Utah this time, we knew of one spot in particular that would hopefully fill our desert craving!