29 May can I get a Florissant? – Yuyavan Robles

The cross-country road trip from California through Nevada, then Utah which finally landed me at my destination of Florissant, Colorado. My worries and nervous emotions instantly blew away by the winds of the Colorado forest. As a California-born and raised citizen, I never imagined anywhere else to allow me to feel centered within myself. I find myself eager to integrate myself with this new environment and to bridge a connection to its citizens.

The moment I walked onto the parks I was star-struck, not only was this a new state park but it was a whole new community. From the moment I arrived and met my site supervisor Jeff Wolin, I was overwhelmed by the hospitality, warm welcome, and knowledge he provided. Walking around the Florassiant fossil bed national monument I began to enjoy the many wayside information they had displayed along the trails. One of which is one of the largest fossils a petrified redwood stump named “the big stump”. In the late 1800s, the local residents began excavating it and quickly became a tourist attraction, however, overcrowding tourists and poor conservation lead to severe damage to rare scientific evidence. In order to prevent any more damage, the National Parks Service has created shelters, laws, and other conservative methods to work towards stabilizing and preserving the stumps.