Two miles south of Florissant on Teller CR 1, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument protects an area once covered by a prehistoric lake. As layer after layer of volcanic ash accumulated some 34 to 35 million years ago, the lake vanished, but its plant and animal life were preserved almost intact in paper-thin layers of shale. It is these fossils, dating from the Eocene period and including standing petrified sequoia stumps, that the 6,000-acre monument protects. Learn More...