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Colorado’s Gold Belt Tour runs 131 miles through fossils, mines, and one epic canyon

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Sequoia affinis Lesquereux, 1876 - fossil giant redwood tree trunk in the Eocene of Colorado, USA. "Petrified wood" refers to fossil wood that, while buried in sediments, had its microscopic porosity filled with minerals as groundwater percolated through. This fossilization process is technically known as permineralization ("petrified" is a horrible term - never use it in a scientific context). Permineralization can also occur with fossil bones. The most common permineralization mineral is quartz (~pure silica - SiO2), which is the most common mineral in the Earth's crust. The permineralized fossil tree trunk seen here is an extinct giant redwood. Redwoods and sequoias are famous giant trees living in modern California. This Colorado fossil demonstrates that they used to live in the Rocky Mountains, when the climate was different. From park signage: Stumps of Stone These fossilized tree stumps are remnants of an ancient catastrophe. In the Late Eocene Epoch, about 34 million yeas ago, the Florissant valley was buried by eruptions from a cluster of volcanoes known as the Guffey Volcanic Center. Huge volcanic mudflows spread into this forested valley with great speed, destroying all but the largest trees. The bases of giant redwoods were buried in place in 15 feet of mud. The trees died and the unburied portions fell over and rotted away. Casings of volcanic mud created the special conditions that turned the buried stumps into stone. Wood Becomes Rock Entombed in silica-rich volcanic mud, these ancient redwood stumps slowly turned to stone through a process called permineralization. Dissolved minerals seeped into the wood, filling in the microscopic spaces within cells. After the solution precipitated silica within the cells of the wood, a stone replica remained. This preserved both the general outer appearance of the tree as well as its inner cellular structure. Redwoods in Colorado? The Rocky Mountain region was once much warmer. Thirty-four million years ago, summers were wet and the winters mild. The Florissant region was forested with towering redwoods, cedars, pines, mixed hardwoods, and ferns. Streams flowed through the valley. Insects, birds, mammals, and fish all thrived in this environment. Fossil leaves serve as ancient thermometers for reading the temperature of the past. By comparing fossil plants with modern vegetation, scientists estimate that the mean annual temperature at Florissant during the Late Eocene was about 56 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius), similar to San Francisco today. Climate Signals The lobed, toothed leaf of the fossil maple Acer florissantii indicates warm-temperate growing conditions. The smooth-edged Cape mahogany, Trichilia florissantii, with its extended "drip tip", is a leaf design common to wetter, subtropical climates. These warmer climates no longer exist at Florissant, where extreme winter temperatures can reach -35 degrees Fahrenheit (-37 degrees Celsius). As the climate changed, the plants of the Eocene then adapted, became extinct, or dispersed to other parts of the Earth. Classification: Plantae, Spermatophyta, Pinophyta, Pinopsida, Cupressales, Cupressaceae Stratigraphy: Florissant Formation, Upper Eocene Locality: Petrified Forest Loop Trail, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, central Colorado, USA Info. at: www.nps.gov/flfo/learn/nature/sequoia-affinis.htm and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia_affinis
Flickr/Ken Lund

Colorado’s oldest roads still run through gold country

About an hour west of Colorado Springs, a 131-mile loop called the Gold Belt Tour strings together two fossil sites, a string of old mining towns, and one of Colorado’s deepest canyons.

The U.S. government named it a National Scenic Byway in 2000, and it earns the title. Plan for a long day or spread it across two.

Most drivers start in the small town of Florissant on Highway 24, where the northern gateway drops you onto roads that were already old when the gold rush hit.

Location Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument Description Beneath a grassy mountain valley in central Colorado lies one of the richest and most diverse fossil deposits in the world. Petrified redwood stumps up to 14 feet wide and thousands of detailed fossils of insects and plants reveal the story of a very different, prehistoric Colorado.
Wikimedia Commons/National Park Service Digital Image Archives

These roads carried miners long before your car did

The Gold Belt Tour follows stagecoach and railroad routes that miners used in the 1890s, when this part of Colorado saw one of the biggest gold booms in the state’s history.

Teller County Road 1 was the original stagecoach track to the Cripple Creek mining camp, cut through the mountains to connect the gold fields with the Arkansas River valley to the south.

Today those same roads roll past ranches, crumbling relics, and canyon country that hasn’t changed much since the boom years faded.

Sequoia affinis Lesquereux, 1876 - fossil giant redwood tree trunks in the Eocene of Colorado, USA. "Petrified wood" refers to fossil wood that, while buried in sediments, had its microscopic porosity filled with minerals as groundwater percolated through. This fossilization process is technically known as permineralization ("petrified" is a horrible term - never use it in a scientific context). Permineralization can also occur with fossil bones. The most common permineralization mineral is quartz (~pure silica - SiO2), which is the most common mineral in the Earth's crust. The permineralized fossil tree trunks seen here are extinct giant redwoods. Redwoods and sequoias are famous giant trees living in modern California. These Colorado fossils demonstrate that they used to live in the Rocky Mountains, when the climate was different. From park signage: Stumps of Stone These fossilized tree stumps are remnants of an ancient catastrophe. In the Late Eocene Epoch, about 34 million yeas ago, the Florissant valley was buried by eruptions from a cluster of volcanoes known as the Guffey Volcanic Center. Huge volcanic mudflows spread into this forested valley with great speed, destroying all but the largest trees. The bases of giant redwoods were buried in place in 15 feet of mud. The trees died and the unburied portions fell over and rotted away. Casings of volcanic mud created the special conditions that turned the buried stumps into stone. Wood Becomes Rock Entombed in silica-rich volcanic mud, these ancient redwood stumps slowly turned to stone through a process called permineralization. Dissolved minerals seeped into the wood, filling in the microscopic spaces within cells. After the solution precipitated silica within the cells of the wood, a stone replica remained. This preserved both the general outer appearance of the tree as well as its inner cellular structure. Ancient Clones This family circle of fossilized stumps grew out of the single trunk of an older parent tree. The three trunks are ancient clones, or genetically identical copies, of that parent tree. Modern coastal redwoods also reproduce by stump sprouting. If a redwood is toppled or burned, a ring of new trees often sprouts from burls around the trunk's base. In the coastal redwood forests, family groups are common. But this trio of stone stumps is unique in the world's fossil record. Redwoods in Colorado? The Rocky Mountain region was once much warmer. Thirty-four million years ago, summers were wet and the winters mild. The Florissant region was forested with towering redwoods, cedars, pines, mixed hardwoods, and ferns. Streams flowed through the valley. Insects, birds, mammals, and fish all thrived in this environment. Fossil leaves serve as ancient thermometers for reading the temperature of the past. By comparing fossil plants with modern vegetation, scientists estimate that the mean annual temperature at Florissant during the Late Eocene was about 56 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius), similar to San Francisco today. Climate Signals The lobed, toothed leaf of the fossil maple Acer florissantii indicates warm-temperate growing conditions. The smooth-edged Cape mahogany, Trichilia florissantii, with its extended "drip tip", is a leaf design common to wetter, subtropical climates. These warmer climates no longer exist at Florissant, where extreme winter temperatures can reach -35 degrees Fahrenheit (-37 degrees Celsius). As the climate changed, the plants of the Eocene then adapted, became extinct, or dispersed to other parts of the Earth. Classification: Plantae, Spermatophyta, Pinophyta, Pinopsida, Cupressales, Cupressaceae Stratigraphy: lahar horizon in the Lower Mudstone Unit of the Florissant Formation, Upper Eocene Locality: Stump Shelter, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, central Colorado, USA Info. at: www.nps.gov/flfo/learn/nature/sequoia-affinis.htm and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia_affinis
Flickr/Ken Lund

Florissant’s ground holds 34-million-year-old secrets

Drive south from Florissant on Teller County Road 1 and you reach the national monument in just a few miles.

The grassy valley looks ordinary from the road, but below the surface sits one of the richest fossil deposits anywhere on earth.

Volcanic eruptions about 34 million years ago buried an ancient lake and everything living around it, including redwood forests.

What came out of that burial: petrified tree stumps up to 14 feet wide and thousands of insect and plant fossils preserved in stone. The visitor center holds specimens you won’t find anywhere else on the site.

Sequoia affinis Lesquereux, 1876 - fossil giant redwood tree trunk in the Eocene of Colorado, USA. "Petrified wood" refers to fossil wood that, while buried in sediments, had its microscopic porosity filled with minerals as groundwater percolated through. This fossilization process is technically known as permineralization ("petrified" is a horrible term - never use it in a scientific context). Permineralization can also occur with fossil bones. The most common permineralization mineral is quartz (~pure silica - SiO2), which is the most common mineral in the Earth's crust. The permineralized fossil tree trunk seen here is an extinct giant redwood. Redwoods and sequoias are famous giant trees living in modern California. This Colorado fossil demonstrates that they used to live in the Rocky Mountains, when the climate was different. From park signage: Stumps of Stone These fossilized tree stumps are remnants of an ancient catastrophe. In the Late Eocene Epoch, about 34 million yeas ago, the Florissant valley was buried by eruptions from a cluster of volcanoes known as the Guffey Volcanic Center. Huge volcanic mudflows spread into this forested valley with great speed, destroying all but the largest trees. The bases of giant redwoods were buried in place in 15 feet of mud. The trees died and the unburied portions fell over and rotted away. Casings of volcanic mud created the special conditions that turned the buried stumps into stone. Wood Becomes Rock Entombed in silica-rich volcanic mud, these ancient redwood stumps slowly turned to stone through a process called permineralization. Dissolved minerals seeped into the wood, filling in the microscopic spaces within cells. After the solution precipitated silica within the cells of the wood, a stone replica remained. This preserved both the general outer appearance of the tree as well as its inner cellular structure. Redwoods in Colorado? The Rocky Mountain region was once much warmer. Thirty-four million years ago, summers were wet and the winters mild. The Florissant region was forested with towering redwoods, cedars, pines, mixed hardwoods, and ferns. Streams flowed through the valley. Insects, birds, mammals, and fish all thrived in this environment. Fossil leaves serve as ancient thermometers for reading the temperature of the past. By comparing fossil plants with modern vegetation, scientists estimate that the mean annual temperature at Florissant during the Late Eocene was about 56 degrees Fahrenheit (13 degrees Celsius), similar to San Francisco today. Climate Signals The lobed, toothed leaf of the fossil maple Acer florissantii indicates warm-temperate growing conditions. The smooth-edged Cape mahogany, Trichilia florissantii, with its extended "drip tip", is a leaf design common to wetter, subtropical climates. These warmer climates no longer exist at Florissant, where extreme winter temperatures can reach -35 degrees Fahrenheit (-37 degrees Celsius). As the climate changed, the plants of the Eocene then adapted, became extinct, or dispersed to other parts of the Earth. Classification: Plantae, Spermatophyta, Pinophyta, Pinopsida, Cupressales, Cupressaceae Stratigraphy: Florissant Formation, Upper Eocene Locality: Petrified Forest Loop Trail, Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, central Colorado, USA Info. at: www.nps.gov/flfo/learn/nature/sequoia-affinis.htm and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia_affinis
Flickr/Ken Lund

Walk up to a fossilized redwood as wide as a room

The Petrified Forest Loop covers one mile on easy ground and winds through the old lake bed where the fossils lie.

Along the way you pass the Big Stump, a fossilized redwood roughly 38 feet around that sits right at trail level, close enough to touch.

The short Geologic Trail covers more than a billion years of Earth’s story in a short walk.

About 14 miles of trails in all run through meadows, forests and aspen groves, including the Ponderosa Loop, a wheelchair-accessible path through the living forest.

The Hornbek Homestead in Florissant, Colorado was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981. It was previously designated a National Historic Landmark on October 17, 1973. The Adeline Hornbek Homestead is a significant example of an early homestead in the area. Being one of the first Homesteaders, she arrived in here 1878. Adeline proved herself to be a resourceful and determined rancher, raising cattle and cultivating crops in the high-altitude environment.
Wikimedia Commons/Mona Ruby Farley

Adeline Hornbek raised four kids and built a ranch here alone

A mile north of the visitor center, a preserved 1878 ranch sits exactly where Adeline Hornbek put it.

She arrived with her four children, claimed the land under the Homestead Act, and built a prosperous ranch on her own at a time when women rarely did such things alone.

The log home she built is on the National Register of Historic Places.

You can walk the grounds and go inside the buildings during open hours, and the whole property gives you a clear picture of what homestead life in the high country actually looked like.

Silverthorne, United States
Wikimedia Commons/Nathan Anderson

The Milky Way comes out clearly at this dark sky park

Florissant Fossil Beds carries a certification as an International Dark Sky Park, sitting far enough from city light pollution that the night sky here is a different experience from what most people see at home.

On clear nights you can pick out the Milky Way, planets and passing comets without a telescope. The parking area at the Hornbek Homestead stays open around the clock for stargazers.

The monument also runs night sky programs with telescopes set up for visitors, and the high elevation and dry mountain air keep the views sharp.

The sign welcoming visitors to Cripple Creek, Colorado in Teller County .
Wikimedia Commons/David Shankbone

Cripple Creek’s downtown still looks like a gold rush town

Head south and the byway rolls into Cripple Creek, the heart of the old gold district.

The downtown carries a National Historic Landmark designation, and the early 1900s brick storefronts and old hotels that line the streets make it easy to see why.

This was a town built on gold money, and the buildings show it.

Small museums walk you through the strike that made the district famous, and a narrow-gauge tourist train runs through the mining country so you can take in the landscape without driving it.

Victor, Colorado is a small town on the southern side of the Cripple Creek Mining District, a rich gold-mining area.
Wikimedia Commons/James St. John

Victor sits ringed by hundreds of old mine sites

A short drive from Cripple Creek, Victor earned the nickname “City of Mines,” and the hills around town still make the case. Headframes and tailings from the boom years dot the ridgelines in every direction.

The downtown is a National Historic District of restored early 1900s buildings, and the streets are quiet enough that photographers and history buffs tend to linger.

A modern gold mine still operates nearby, which means the area hasn’t just preserved the past; it’s still doing what it was built to do.

Scope and content: The original finding aid described this photograph as: Original Caption: This kiosk, located on the upper side of Shelf Road, provides valuable information for travelers. Location: Location: Colorado (38.724° N 105.176° W) Status: Public domain. Photo by Sally Pearce
Wikimedia Commons

Shelf Road drops 200 feet above a streambed with no guardrails

Two of the byway’s four roads are unpaved and not for everyone.

Shelf Road clings to a canyon wall about 200 feet above the streambed below, and Phantom Canyon Road threads through a narrow gorge along an old railroad grade. Both roads require high-clearance vehicles.

Vehicles 25 feet and over aren’t permitted on either one, and Shelf Road isn’t suitable for trailers, campers or motor homes.

If you want a straightforward drive, the paved Teller 1 and High Park roads cover the loop without any of that.

Scope and content: The original finding aid described this photograph as: Original Caption: The Dinosaur Depot interprets the rich history of the Garden Park Fossil Area. It houses exhibits, specimens, and a fossil preparation laboratory. Educational programs are available. Location: Location: Cañon City, Colorado (38.439° N 105.242° W) Status: Public domain. Courtesy of the Bureau of Land Management
Wikimedia Commons

Garden Park gave the world some of its most famous dinosaur bones

Near Cañon City the route passes the Garden Park Dinosaur Fossil Area, a rugged stretch of terrain that has produced some of the most significant dinosaur skeletons ever pulled from the ground.

Diggers here have found plant-eating dinosaurs, eggs and fossil tracks.

Trails and overlooks take you out to the quarries where the excavations happened, so you’re standing in the same spots where those bones came out.

Back-to-back with Florissant, it makes this loop genuinely unusual: two major fossil sites on a single day’s drive.

The Royal Gorge Bridge, from the north parking lot.
Wikimedia Commons/Hustvedt

The Royal Gorge drops 1,250 feet straight down to the river

Near the southern end of the loop, the route swings close to the Royal Gorge.

The canyon walls fall roughly 1,250 feet to the Arkansas River below, and a suspension bridge spans the top, one of the highest in the country.

Down at river level, the Arkansas draws rafters through some of Colorado’s best whitewater.

You can take in the canyon from overlooks along the rim or ride a scenic railroad through the gorge, which puts you at river level with the walls rising straight up on both sides.

Scope and content: The original finding aid described this photograph as: Original Caption: This kiosk, located in Florissant, is framed by a clear blue sky. Location: Location: Florissant, Colorado (38.946° N 105.289° W) Status: Public domain. Photo by Sally Pearce
Wikimedia Commons

Five towns, two mountain road types and one full loop

The Gold Belt Tour connects five towns: Florissant, Cripple Creek, Victor, Cañon City and Florence.

Teller County Road 1 cuts through ranch country with Pikes Peak visible on the horizon. High Park Road gives you easy paved driving with views of distant mountain ranges.

The landscape shifts as you go, from open high meadows to deep rocky canyons, and the change happens faster than you’d expect.

Pack layers and carry plenty of water. The high country stays cool, and the thin air at elevation will remind you where you are.

The visitor center in Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Colorado
Wikimedia Commons/Fredlyfish4

Visit Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument in Colorado

To start the Gold Belt Tour at the northern gateway, head about 35 miles west of Colorado Springs on Highway 24 to the town of Florissant, then follow Teller County Road 1 south to the monument entrance.

The park stays open year-round, though visitor center hours shift by season and staffing, so check the official website before you go.

Federal park passes work at the entrance.

Give yourself a few hours to cover the trails, see the fossil stumps and walk the Hornbek Homestead before you continue the loop south.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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John Ghost is a professional writer and SEO director. He graduated from Arizona State University with a BA in English (Writing, Rhetorics, and Literacies). As he prepares for graduate school to become an English professor, he writes weird fiction, plays his guitars, and enjoys spending time with his wife and daughters. He lives in the Valley of the Sun. Learn more about John on Muck Rack.

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