We stayed at a Harvest Host Campground
(between Breckenridge and Colorado Springs)
This is the Florissant Grange. Apparently the Grange is a fraternal organization, primarily for the farmers and ranchers in rural areas.
The property is a former schoolhouse from 1887.
There are 35 Grange members, 3 of them are 91 years old and attended this school.
Lovely evening with music and pot luck dinner with other Grange members.
Among the Grange activities are a weekly music/pot-luck get together.
They also have classes (art, pine needle basket weaving, gourd making) on a regular basis. It is a surprisingly "together" community for the rural folks.
Then, the fossils.
This is the quarry that is open to the public for personal "fossil hunting"
For $15 an hour per person, they give you a box of rocks (shale)
and the tools to find fossils.
Primarily a razor blade and kitchen knife to split the layers!
Our 'catch' was primarily leaves and sticks.
Not nearly as much fun as the fish from Wyoming.
The landscape in this area is mostly flat, some rolling hills.
They say that the forest was covered with Redwoods.
Imagine that - a Redwood forest covered this now flat landscape.
Many petrified wood stumps of redwood have been uncovered and are a part of the National Monument.
The "Mother Tree" had these three 'babies'
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